tion 



3eautu 





Class j&XaiOi 



Book 
Copyright}! . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSFT. 




Rev. Moses D. Hoge, D. D , LL. D. 



THE PERFECTION OF 
BEAUTY 

And Other Sermons 



BY THE 

Rev. MOSES D. HOGE, D. D., LL. D. 

OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 



With a Lecture on 

The Success of Christianity an Evidence of its Divine Origin 

Delivered at the University of Virginia 




RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 

The Presbyterian Committee of Publication 

1904 



DC1 12 1904 
y^ooyrt*ht Entry j 

CLASS 4lXXb. Nfe" 



^fofvV 







Copyrighted by 
THE PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 

R. E. Magill, Secretary. 
1904. 



Printed by 

Whittet & Shepperson, 

Richmond, Va. 



PREFACE. 

The voice of the preacher still lingers in our ear, and 
as memory brings him before us in his pulpit, erect, com- 
manding, thrilled with his message, and thrilling all who 
heard, we are still longing for "the sound of the voice 
that is still." To the very close of his fifty-four years of 
service in the one pulpit, Dr. Hoge was so intent upon 
the work which his hand found to do, that he could not 
be persuaded to go aside, and prepare the volumes so 
many desired, sermons, addresses, memoirs. 

The sermons embraced in this volume were taken, not 
from his pen, but from his lips, by a stenographer, and 
when written out, were only in two or three cases revised 
by him. They are, therefore, almost entirely word for 
word as they were delivered from the pulpit. Some of 
them were preached in a number of places, and were heard 
by great congregations. They are still remembered by a 
great company, and are all the more desired in this 
printed form. 

The selection has been made with a view, not only of 
preserving examples of the method and style of the 
preacher, but with a desire to give to many that which 
will be profitable to the spirit and effective in the life, and 
so perpetuate the fruitful ministry of the preacher. 

It is a profound regret with many, that with these 
sermons there have not been preserved the prayers which 



4 PREFACE. 

accompanied them. Oftentimes the prayers seemed even 
more marvellous than the sermons, as he bore the silent 
assembly, with all its wants and desires, to the presence 
chamber of the God of Israel, who waited to be inquired 
of. They were made with preparation and with prayer. 
They were uttered with a voice, reverent, distinct, exquis- 
itely expressive, which held the ear and moved the heart. 
They were scriptural in phrase, appropriate to the occa- 
sion, comprehensive of the whole assembly and its vari- 
ous needs, and led the worshipping congregation to the 
gate which leads up to the mercy seat. 

We have added to this selection of sermons, the lecture 
at the Virginia University on "The Success of Chris- 
tianity, an Evidence of its Divine Origin," a discourse of 
marked power and eloquence. It is an argument that has 
not lost, but gained in strength since it was presented in 
the masterly address. Other addresses, and some prayers 
offered on certain notable occasions have been published 
in the Life of Moses D. Hoge, by his nephew, the Rev. 
Dr. Peyton H. Hoge, an unsurpassed example of religious 
biography. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

I. The Perfection of Beauty, n 

44 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, hath God shined." — Psalm 

1.2. 

II. Not of This World, 22 

" My kingdom is not of this world." — John xviii. 36. 

III. The Holy Mountains, 38 

11 His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loveth the 
gates of Zion more than the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious 
things are spoken of thee, O city of God."— Psalm lxxxvii. 
1-3- 

IV. The River that Maketh Glad, 49 

u There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of 
God." — Psalm xlvi. 4. 

V. A Little Sanctuary, 61 

u I will be to them a little sanctuary." — Ezek. xi. 16. 

VI. The Survival of the Fittest, 74 

44 The word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."— i Peter 
i. 23. 

VII. The Silences of Scripture, 87 

44 And many other signs truly Jesus did in the presence of his dis- 
ciples, which are not written in this book." — John xx. 30. 

VIII. "But These are Written," ico 

44 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son 
of God, and that believing, ye might have life through his 
name."— John xx. 31. 



6 CONTENTS. 

Page. 

IX. The Universal Religion, 1 1 1 

" That thou mayest know the certainties of those things where- 
in thou hast been instructed." — Luke i. 4. 

X. John the Baptist, 123 

" And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah." 
— Luke i. 17. 

XI. Liddon, Bersier, Spurgeon, 135 

" And Samuel died, and all the Israelites were gathered to- 
gether, and lamented him." — 1 Samuel xxv. i. 

XII. " My Mother and My Brethren," . . . 154 

"There came then his brethren and his mother," etc.— Mark 
iii. 31-35. 

XIII. Kind Words to a Doubting Heart, . . 168 

11 Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and 
heard," etc. — Luke vii. 22, 23. 



XIV. God's Tender Mercy, 180 

" Through the tender mercy of our God, the day-spring from 
on high hath visited us." — Luke i. 78. 



XV. Weeping over Jerusalem, 192 

" And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept 
over it," etc. — Luke xix. 42, 43. 



XVI. What Mean Ye by this Service ? . . . 206 

" What mean ye by this service ?" — Exodus xii. 26. 

XVII. His Hour and His Prayer, 215 

" Now is my soul troubled," etc. — John xii. 27, 28. 

XVIII. His Hands and His Side, 227 

" He shewed them his hands and his side." — John xx. 20. 



CONTENTS. 7 

Page. 

XIX. Teach Us to Pray, 237 

11 And it came to pass that, as he was praying in a certain place 
alone on the seaside, one of his disciples came unto him, 
and said, Lord, teach us to pray." — Luke xi. 9. 

XX. In the Swelling of Jordan, 251 

k * If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied 
thee, then how canst thou contend with horses ? And if in 
the land of peace wherein thou trustedst, they wearied 
thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" — 
Jeremiah xii. 5. 

XXI. A Coffin in Egypt, 261 

11 So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old ; and they 
embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." — 
Genesis 1. 26. 

XXII, Unfulfilled Obligations at last Ful- 
filled, 272 

11 I pray thee, let me go over and see the good land that is 
beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. Get 
thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes," 
etc — Deut. iii. 25-27. 

The Success of Christianity an Evidence of 

its Divine Origin, 287 

A Lecture, delivered at the University of Virginia. 



SERMONS. 



THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY. 

"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, hath God shined." — 
Psalm 1. 2. 

THE first verse of this Psalm is a proclamation well 
adapted to arrest attention, "The mighty God, even 
the Lord, hath spoken and called to the earth from the 
rising of the sun unto the going down thereof." I cannot 
well imagine a more impressive introduction; for God, 
who made the whole earth, and whose providence controls 
all the events which make up its history, lifts up his 
voice. God speaks, and the assembled race constitutes 
his audience. "O earth, hear the word of the Lord" ; the 
word of him who created all that live, and controls the 
lives of all men that have a being, and will finally gather 
all mankind for judgment at his bar. He speaks; let the 
whole earth listen. After such an introduction comes 
the declaration of the text, "Out of Zion, the perfection 
of beauty." Such is the title that God bestows upon his 
church. He calls it "the perfection of beauty." Zion is 
the comprehensive word oftenest used in his declarations 
of intense and unchangeable love for his redeemed people. 
Thus we find expressions like these: "The holy hill of 
Zion," "Zion, the joy of the whole earth," "Praise waits 
for thee, O God, in Zion," "The Lord hath chosen Zion. 
This is my rest, and here will I dwell," "The Lord shall 
bless thee out of Zion," "The Lord loveth the gates of 
Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." In the use 
of this word "Zion" we see how the meaning of a word 



12 SERMONS. 

grows fuller and richer by its association with the noblest 
things, and how it expands until it becomes universally 
comprehensive of all that is brightest and best. Zion was 
the loftiest of the hills upon which Jerusalem was built, 
but the name originally became the title of the entire city 
of Jerusalem, and then it became a name for all God's 
ancient people, until finally it became the title of the 
entire visible and invisible church over which Christ is 
supreme, through all the world and through all the ages ; 
and, therefore, when we come to read the great Epistle 
to the Hebrews, in that magnificent parallel which the 
Apostle draws between the ancient church and the church 
under the dispensation of the Spirit, we find him saying, 
"Ye are not come to the mount that might be touched 
[alluding to the old dispensation] and that burned with 
fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest, but ye 
are come to Mount Zion; to the city of the living God; 
to the heavenly Jerusalem." This Zion, this ransomed 
church, the text declares to be "the perfection of beauty." 
When God created all things by the word of his 
power, he pronounced them "very good" ; but when God 
undertook a spiritual creation, it was not the work of his 
power only, though that was involved: other attributes 
played their part in the construction of that mightiest 
work — the wisdom of God as well as his power, the 
condescension of God and his infinite compassion. The 
old Zion, that once sat upon the imperial hill which it 
graced and glorified, has long since passed away like the 
baseless fabric of a vision ; but the true Zion still stands ; 
God's spiritual church, resting upon immovable founda- 
tions, illumined by a more excellent glory, with walls ever 
rising, with courts ever expanding, until the time shall 
come when upon the completed edifice shall be placed 
that ample and beauteous dome, beneath which shall be 



THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY. 13 

heard the songs of the jubilant and the emancipated 
nations. We are not surprised, therefore, to find that 
inspiration ranges through all the works of God in order 
to select imagery with which to represent the glory and 
the beauty of Zion. "She comes forth," says the prophet, 
"fair as the morning." What emblem could have been 
selected to give us a more elevated conception of Zion's 
beauty than this ? — the gladness and the rosy freshness of 
the early morning, when jocund day stands tiptoe upon 
the mountain top ! 

"Clear as the moon !" What beauty is there that more 
charms the eye and the imagination than the soft radiance 
of the Queen of Night, walking in brightness through the 
blue? "The church," is the answer; "the Bride, the 
Lamb's wife," apparelled, not with the beauty of earth, 
but of heaven, arrayed in the raiment of the King's 
daughter, and walking in his galleries of light ! 

1. Zion is the perfection of beauty because of the 
spiritual worship which is offered there, and which God 
accepts; because of the unity and harmony and fellow- 
ship and brotherly love that prevail among its members ; 
because it is adorned with what the Scriptures call, in 
charming phrase, "the beauty of holiness," a phrase 
intelligible to the pious Israelite, but which could not 
have been understood by the cultivated Greek, with all 
his impassioned love of grace in proportion, grace in 
architecture, grace in statuary, grace in oratory, grace in 
the noblest forms of poetic art. "The beauty of holiness," 
perhaps, was something that he could not comprehend, 
but, thank God, there are millions now less erudite and 
less cultivated than the people of ancient classic lands 
who can comprehend its meaning, and who recognize in 
it a charm which nothing earthly can even illustrate; a 
charm not of terrestrial, but of celestial birth. 



i 4 SERMONS. 

2. The church is the perfection of beauty because of 
its beneficent activity ever manifesting itself in efforts 
for the relief of human want and woe. We recognize a 
heavenly origin in the kindly cherishing spirit that goes 
forth from the church for the succor of all that need 
individual help, and for the uplifting of all the classes so 
long forgotten and neglected; in a word, for the relief 
of suffering humanity, whether that suffering is caused by 
physical or by spiritual destitution. I have oftentimes 
wondered that the church does not have more considera- 
tion and more cooperation from the men of the world, 
who, though animated by nothing but philanthropy, and 
without regard for the highest interests of the race, yet 
must see that the condition of the world would be very 
different from what it is if the church did not exist in it. 
Every man endowed with ordinary intelligence must see 
that nearly all the benevolent institutions which furnish 
homes for the widow and orphan ; asylums for the deaf, 
the dumb and the blind ; hospitals for the diseased ; 
wholesome Christian literature for the reading public; 
the publication of the holy Scriptures in nearly all the 
languages spoken on the erath, emanate from the church. 
Why is it that in none of the great resorts and haunts of 
pleasure and fashion and wealth collections are ever 
solicited for the suffering poor, and for associations 
organized to advance all the forms of benevolence? Do 
you not think it deserves a little consideration among 
reflecting men that this should be so, and that the 
church should always be looked to to supply suffering 
humanity's needs while there are thousands of great 
secular associations, great political, scientific and com- 
mercial organizations, powerful by reason of wealth and 
numbers, to which appeals might be made and from which 
benefactions might be reasonably expected to come? 



THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY. 15 

There is but one gate through which the benefactions of 
the truly charitable forever flow, and that is the beautiful 
gate of the temple. Yes, this is one of the elements that 
constitutes the beauty of the church ; its boundless benev- 
olence, its wide-reaching, far-reaching, all-comprehending 
charity. 

I say the church of God is entitled to the respect and 
the support of the men of the world who care nothing 
for it as a divine institution, but who do care for their 
fellow-men, and who do have pity upon the sufferings of 
the destitute. These are the things that make the church 
beautiful ; and that which crowns all the rest is when the 
members of the church, with one consent, joyfully and 
heartily consecrate themselves to God and take pleasure 
in the work which is entrusted to their hands. Then, 
when these things combine — spirituality of worship, har- 
mony, fellowship, brotherly love, the beauty of holiness, 
intelligent beneficence and whole-souled consecration to 
God ; when these elements unite, then the church deserves 
the title which it receives when it is declared to be "the 
perfection of beauty." 

I. The church is luminous with the reflection of the 
glory of its divine author. "Out of Zion, the perfection 
of beauty, hath God shined." How is this divine efful- 
gence manifested ? I answer : No element in nature could 
be selected that so fittingly represents that which is most 
attractive in the divine nature; as the sun mirrors itself 
in the placid sea, spread out as a molten looking-glass, 
so the divine glory is reflected from Zion; no element 
more suggestive of divine bounteousness than the element 
of light, just because light is so abundant, so pure; 
because it diffuses so much joy, because through light 
all things are made manifest. Without light the earth 
would be wrapped in a pall, perpetual and impenetrable. 



16 SERMONS. 

It is because of light that we see its beauty and derive our 
impressions of its glory; and therefore it is said, "God 
is light," to illustrate his perfections and his manifesta- 
tions of himself to men. When he was conducting the 
chosen tribes in their magnificent march across the desert 
to the land which had been prepared for their reception, 
God went before the host in a pillar of cloud by day, and 
as the day wore on and the shades of evening approached, 
lo ! in the centre of that cloud there was a luminous spot, 
and as the darkness deepened it grew brighter and 
expanded, and the soft luster spread until the entire cloud 
from top to bottom was irradiated. All night long God 
manifested himself in the pillar of fire. So, too, we find 
when he commanded his people to make a tabernacle in 
their march through the wilderness, in order that they 
might have a place where they could congregate and 
maintain the ceremonies of holy worship, there was one 
apartment more sacred than the rest, entitled the holy of 
holies, behind the veil, within which was the ark, with the 
overshadowing cherubim, and between their golden wings 
there flashed forth a light, the Shekinah, the manifest 
emblem of the presence of Jehovah. That presence was 
more impressively manifested when the temple was built 
to substitute that movable tent. When Solomon, with the 
materials which his father had collected for the purpose, 
erected the temple, at its completion, when the day of 
dedication came, then the glory of the Lord came down 
with such effulgence that the priests could not stand to 
minister because of that exceeding glory. 

2. "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, hath God 
shined." God hath not only shined in his church to make 
it what it is, but he also shines out of it by the influences 
that emanate from it; and so we find that Isaiah says, 
"Out of Zion went forth the law, and the word of the 



i 



THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY. 17 

Lord from Jerusalem/' and it is a very memorable fact 
that the only idea of true religion which the ancient 
nations possessed was from the holy light from Zion's 
hill, shining far beyond the walls of Jerusalem. 

3. Finally when Christ himself, the Redeemer, came 
to Zion its light shone forth with a new glory ; and when 
he finished his earthly work, while his commission to his 
apostles was to go into all the world and preach the 
gospel to every creature, yet first that gospel was to be 
preached in Jerusalem, and there the disciples had to wait 
until a celestial power, manifesting itself in tongues of 
fire, the emblem of the Holy Ghost, came down to qualify 
them for their world-wide mission. It is a very impres- 
sive fact, that as the old nations got their ideas of the 
one living and true God, and of how he should be wor- 
shipped, from Zion, so after the advent, all successive 
nations have continued to receive their ideas of Chris- 
tianity from the same central source of divine influence. 
Outward from the very city where the Lord was crucified 
the word of salvation went forth to all to whom the 
gospel was preached. 

"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, hath God 
shined." The people that sat in darkness saw a great 
light, and to them that sat in the shadow of death a light 
is sprung up. Just as Christianity prevailed, the world 
had its very intelligence quickened; a new life suddenly 
was felt pervading its entire frame; the superstitions 
that debased men began to vanish ; the false forms of 
religion that held the intellects of men in baleful subjuga- 
tion were overthrown, and the human mind was emanci- 
pated from its long thraldom. Men who had been taught 
to believe that might was right learned another lesson, 
and began to understand that right constituted the noblest 
might. Men became acquainted with their rights, and 
2 



18 SERMONS. 

endowed with the courage to maintain them. By and by, 
through the pervading influence of Christianity, what we 
call Christian civilization became the heritage of the 
world. It deserves notice that the strongest nations of 
the earth to-day — those which have just laws, true 
science, constitutional government and free institutions — 
are the nations that are most thoroughly penetrated and 
pervaded by the gospel of Christ. 

4. "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, hath God 
shined." The divine glory is also displayed in the won- 
derful transformations which this gospel produces in 
human character wherever it is proclaimed and believed. 
"Look on this picture and on this, I pray you." Here is 
the portraiture that the Apostle draws of the depth of 
degradation into which sin can reduce humanity in the 
first chapter of his letter to the Romans. When you read 
the frightful catalogue of epithets which describe fallen 
humanity, you feel very much as if you were on the very 
borders of the pit — as if you were listening to the roll- 
call of demons. But after that appalling register the 
Apostle says, "Such were some of you, but ye are washed, 
ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord 
Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." What transforma- 
tions that Spirit makes ! My friends, do you know that 
there are some islands in the Pacific that one hundred 
years agro were inhabited by savages and by cannibals, 
in which not a single idolatrous temple can be found 
to-day? Do you know that from one of these cannibal 
islands a native went once to England, and in the British 
Museum saw for the first time in his life an idol — one 
of the idols his forefathers had worshipped, now de- 
posited in the museum as a curiosity? 

Would you have another illustration of the trans- 
forming power of the gospel? Then turn to the picture 



THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY. 19 

of the primitive church as delineated in the second chapter 
of the Acts of the Apostles, and contemplate their stead- 
fast loyalty to doctrine, their hearty fellowship, their 
abounding generosity, their delight in worship as they 
continued daily in the temple, with one accord, in prayer 
and Christian communion, eating their meat with gladness 
and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor 
with all the people. 

When Mr. James Russell Lowell was attending a 
banquet in the city of London, among the after-dinner 
speeches there were some that contained slurs upon the 
Christian religion, and ironical remarks with regard to 
the credulity that still lingered in the world among those 
who believed in the supernatural ; and when Mr. Lowell 
rose to respond to a complimentary toast, he said, "It is 
very easy, gentlemen, sitting in an elegant apartment like 
this, around a table covered with flowers, with all the 
tokens and emblems of a refined civilization about us, it 
is very easy to speculate about religion in a jocose way, 
and to cast slurs and reflections upon it, but," said he, 
"while our friends thus indulge themselves in the amuse- 
ment of discarding religion, they would do well to be 
thankful that they live in a land where the gospel has 
tamed the ferocity and beastliness of those who but for 
Christianity might have long ago eaten their carcasses 
like the South Sea Islanders, or cut off their heads and 
tanned their skins like the monsters of the French Revo- 
lution. I would be glad if any one of these gentlemen 
would point to me ten miles square on this globe where a 
man could raise a family decently, under the protection 
of just and equitable laws, where his children could be 
raised unspoiled and unpolluted, where age is reverenced, 
infancy cherished, women honored, manhood respected 
and human life made secure ; when such a place ten miles 



2o SERMONS. 

square can be found where the gospel of Christ has not 
gone and cleared the way and laid the foundation of true 
Christian civilization, then it will be in order for skeptics 
to ventilate their views." 

Yes, my hearers, where this gospel goes, liberty goes, 
just laws go, education goes, churches are built, all the 
benignant institutions which bless and benefit society 
appear. The world is revolutionized and renovated just 
in proportion as it is penetrated and pervaded by the 
gospel of Jesus Christ. And when these results are seen, 
then God is glorified, and "out of Zion, the perfection of 
beauty, God's glory shines." 

Since these things are so, need I ask, Ought we not to 
be heartily in harmony, in spirit and in effort, with God's 
purposes of mercy and grace to the world? Ought we 
not to throw our lives into the great channels which his 
kindness, his loving kindness, has opened for our 
entrance? Ought we not to cooperate zealously with the 
men that are trying to maintain the cause of truth and 
righteousness ? Ought we not to give our most intelligent, 
earnest and generous support to those agencies and 
institutions by which the whole family of mankind may 
finally be brought back to its rightful allegiance to God? 
I think so; you think so; everybody thinks so in his 
better moments; and, therefore, we see the infinite pro- 
priety of what our Lord said to his disciples, "Let your 
light so shine that others seeing your good works may 
glorify your Father which is in heaven." Do we not see 
with what an attractive lustre Christianity may shine 
when it is illustrated in the lives of its members on this 
wise : "Do all things without murmurings and disputings, 
that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God 
without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse 
nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 



THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY. 21 

holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the 
day of Christ Jesus"? 

My friends, sometimes when I am ending my sermon 
I wish very much that Heaven would inspire me with the 
knowledge of the right way to make the right application 
of my discourse. If I have unfolded an important truth, 
or demonstrated a great principle, then I want to find 
some method by which I may bring it home to the con- 
science, to the reason, to the heartfelt approval of those 
to whom I speak, but now inspiration has supplied this 
great need in the impressive words of our Lord and of 
his Apostle, just read. Or if we could take to heart these 
simple and sweet directions, and then, imploring divine 
aid, sincerely and earnestly endeavor to live in accordance 
with them, how quickly society around us would feel the 
hallowed influence. Were all to unite in such consecrated 
effort throughout the entire church, then Zion would be 
recognized and acknowledged even by the world as "the 
perfection of beauty," and then "the beams which shine 
from Zion's hill would lighten every land." If I were 
permitted to make one wish, with the assurance that what 
I wished would be granted to the people that I love, it 
would be this, that God, who commanded the light to 
shine out of darkness, would shine in your hearts, and 
give to every one to whom I speak this day the knowledge 
of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. 



II. 

"NOT OF THIS WORLD." 

"My kingdom is not of this world." — John xviii. 36. 

IT seems the longer educated men live who believe in 
the Christian system, and whose hearts are filled with 
the sweet hopes of the gospel of Christ, the more they are 
impressed, not only with the number, but with the great 
variety of evidences by which the truth of our holy 
religion is demonstrated. These evidences are not only 
numerous, but they are drawn from sources so widely 
different. They come from departments that have no 
connection with each other; indeed, we may say the 
whole physical universe, the whole world may be levied 
upon for illustrations and for confirmations of the truth 
of Holy Writ. 

We begin at the beginning ; the Bible is the only book 
that has given the world a picture, a definition of a God 
that is entitled to human respect, to human veneration, 
to human love and obedience. What a wonderful fact 
that is ! There was not one of all the gods of Olympus, 
there was not one of the thirty thousand deities that were 
represented in the city of Athens whose character and life 
was not blemished or blackened by some vice; whereas 
the God revealed to us in these holy Scriptures, with 
perfect unanimity by all the sacred writers, is represented 
in the same august and adorable light, worthy of the 
homage and supremest affection of all intelligent crea- 
tures. How wonderful it is that a system of miraculous 
evidences running through fifteen hundred years should 



"NOT OF THIS WORLD." 23 

have ever been constructed — miracles that seem to con- 
travene the natural and established laws of nature, and 
so well authenticated that their reality was not denied 
even by those most acute, ingenious and virulently bitter 
enemies of Christianity that wrote against it in the early 
centuries. They admitted that the miracles were 
wrought; they only denied that they were accomplished 
by a divine power. They ascribed them to human 
agencies, but as for the reality of the miracles it could not 
be contradicted in many instances. How wonderful it is 
that a system of prophecy that begins, I may say, with 
the beginning of man's history — that a system of 
prophecy should have been delineated the first sentence 
of which was whispered in the ears of our first parents in 
the garden of Eden, and that prophecy from this germinal 
commencement has been unfolding through all the cen- 
turies, so that every century that passes brings a new 
confirmation of the truth of the Bible, because it witnesses 
the fulfilment of some prophecy. 

History is, after all, the greatest witness ; the world's 
history as it moves on is the great demonstration of the 
truth of prophecy, and, therefore, as the centuries are 
added one to another the evidences of the truth, of the 
fulfilment of these prophecies will be cumulative with the 
progressive ages. And then, my friends, is it not most 
wonderful that men living in different climates, under 
different social and political and moral influences, that 
men who are different from each other in their natural 
and in their spiritual endowments, should have uniformly 
taught that the beauty of man's character, in its highest 
development, is the beauty of holiness. O that I had time 
to enlarge upon that theme with which my soul kindles 
when I think of it, that every writer in the New Testa- 
ment, in some way or other, makes his contribution to the 



24 SERMONS. 

effect that man attains to his greatest dignity, and his 
only true dignity, just as the expulsive power of the 
heavenly affection expels from his soul everything that is 
dark and defiling, and fills him with light and truth and 
hope and love and peace. 

The most wonderful of all the demonstrable evidences 
of the truth of Scripture, after all, is the picture that it 
presents of the only perfect ideal that the world ever saw. 
All men's ideas of virtue and of perfection are fragmen- 
tary; here is one that is complete, here is one that is 
absolutely faultless, here is one before which even the 
skeptic and the scoffer has been compelled to bow — the 
matchless beauty of the Son of Mary. I do not know 
what forms of beauty the heaven of heavens contains ; I 
do know that the heaven of heavens contains nothing 
more beautiful than my glorified Jesus. And so, my 
friends, we have the privilege and the happiness of em- 
bracing a religion of certainties, a religion the proofs of 
which are always growing stronger and more convincing. 
Can we recollect without devoutest gratitude that we were 
born in a Christian land, and that perhaps our first teacher 
was a pious mother ? 

What a privilege it is to be in connection with this 
kingdom of which Jesus speaks, the kingdom of which 
he is the founder, the kingdom of which he is to-day the 
loving protector. It is a great mistake to suppose that 
Christ's work was completed with his resurrection and 
with his ascension. In one sense it was only the begin- 
ning of his work. Ever since that ascension to glory he 
has been superintending the affairs of his church, and it 
is because of his perpetual and loving counsel that the 
church is perpetuated, and that our hearts are thrilled 
with the prospect of its ultimate victory. 

A most interesting question here arises as to the rela- 



"NOT OF THIS WORLD." 25 

tions between this church and the outlying world, the 
relation between the church and the governments, the 
different kingdoms and republics in which the church is 
planted. Our Lord very briefly says, "My kingdom is 
not of this world." That is a statement that has been 
controverted, practically, for the last fifteen hundred 
years by a large proportion of those who claim pre- 
eminence in that kingdom ; it has been virtually denied 
by thousands of those who think that the only way of 
maintaining the permanency of the church, of increasing 
its power and of securing its universal supremacy, is by 
an alliance with the State. And this brings me to that 
epoch of ecclesiastical history to which I wish to direct 
3'Our attention, because it is the beginning of that alliance 
and the beginning of that system of union and coopera- 
tion between church and state which has continued for 
fourteen or fifteen centuries. 

It is often said that when Constantine ascended the 
throne and made Christianity the established religion of 
the empire, Christianity prospered because the Emperor 
patronized it ; on the contrary, my friends, the Emperor 
patronized it because Christianity had prospered. It was 
not the church coming humbly to a Gesar and seeking the 
hand of the state, it was the state that wooed the church. 
Constantine had the sagacity to see that the church had 
already become the greatest power in the world, and it 
was on this account that he adopted the plan of strength- 
ening the state and of accomplishing his own ambitious 
schemes through an alliance with the church. 

The history of this man is one of great fascination, 
and marks an era in church history. He was born, as 
many of you know, in the kingdom of Dacia, on the 
northern bank of the Rhine, the kingdom that embraces 
modern Waldachia, and parts of that section of the east- 



26 SERMONS. 

ern portion of Europe which is included in Hungary and 
Moldavia. There were six emperors contending for the 
government of the world — three of them in the eastern 
part of the Roman Empire and three in the western part 
— six emperors contending for universal rule. When 
the father of Constantine invaded Great Britain, the 
young man hastened to him, having been separated very 
early from his father, and living in a distant part of the 
country. He overtook his father upon the banks of the 
English Channel, crossed the Channel with him, and 
partook of the easy victory that was achieved over the 
Britons. Many persons do not know that the father of 
Constantine died in the venerable city of York, within 
sight of that magnificent cathedral that so many of you 
have visited and admired. It was in that ancient city of 
York that Constantine himself was crowned, and became 
king of Britain and of Gaul and of Spain. On his return 
to the Continent, the constant conflicts between these 
rival emperors had reduced the number to four, and 
presently to three, one of these being Maxentius, who 
made every attempt that was possible to destroy Con- 
stantine — to effect his ruin and his death by fair or by 
unfair means. I need not recapitulate the story which is 
probably familiar to you — of the conflicts between the 
forces of Maxentius and of Constantine, how at the battle 
of the Milvion Bridge, near the city of Rome, Constantine 
achieved his great victory; I need not tell you how he 
conquered his other rival, Lycinius, in subsequent con- 
flicts, and how, in his early manhood, with a princely 
presence, with an inflexible will, with a daring genius, 
with a natural aptitude for war, with the greatest self- 
control after a life of chastity and of temperance, and a 
life in which he had habituated himself to every species 
of hardship, he entered upon his magnificent career. 



"NOT OF THIS WORLD." 27 

What interests us most in the connection is the story of 
his conversion, and the insoluble questions that have 
arisen with regard to it. This is one of those great his- 
torical problems that never will be solved. There are a 
great many Christian writers who look upon Constantine 
as one of the greatest servants of the church, as a man 
who accomplished more than any man of his day or of 
those centuries for its welfare; whereas there are others 
who look upon him as a crafty politician, as a man con- 
sumed by intense personal ambition, as only half con- 
verted, if half converted at all. And so the rival factions 
continue to dispute, widely divergent in their expressions 
of opinion, as widely differing as the statements of Euse- 
bius, a great admirer and eulogist, and those of Gibbon, 
who depreciates the character of this man, and represents 
him as an artful hypocrite. 

You are aware of the fact that while Constantine was 
pursuing his career of conquest he alleged, at least, that 
he had been greatly influenced by a dream that he had at 
night, in which a voice spoke to his inmost soul, in which 
he received, as he thought, a divine commission to under- 
take the reformation of the world. This was followed by 
that other most remarkable statement, which also is one 
of the controverted points in history, with regard to that 
vision which he professed to have seen in the sky, the 
vision of the cross flaming in the heavens, and a voice 
that uttered those oracular and inspiriting words, "By 
this sign thou shalt conquer." One of the most judicious, 
thoughtful and pious of modern historians, Ulhorn, in 
his Conflict of Christianity and Heathenism, does not 
hesitate to say that he believes that Constantine was per- 
fectly sincere in the statement of what he saw, and of the 
influence which it exerted upon him. That much we all 
may admit. Even if it was an hallucination, even if it 



2 S SERMONS. 

was some distempered ocular condition that induced him 
to fancy that he saw that vision, yet he believed he saw 
that sign in the heavens, and the evidence of that belief 
is that it changed, to a very great extent, the man's life, 
and in the most solemn manner at the time of his death 
he reiterated the story, and communicated the fact to 
Eusebius, who received it from his lips : that it had been 
the influencing and controlling incident in his entire life. 
Charmed with the romance, his ambition was too large 
to be filled by the possession of the city of the seven hills, 
and he achieved the daring project of giving the world 
a new capital. He accomplished what he undertook. He 
was the founder of the most splendid city, so far as its 
position is concerned, upon the entire globe — the city of 
Constantinople. Napoleon himself declared that it was 
the key to the empire of the world, and that the nation 
that would hold Constantinople would be the dominant 
nation because of its peculiar position, lying upon the 
narrow Bosphorus, touched by Europe on one side, and 
by Asia on the other ; the Bosphorus so easy to shut up 
at both ends, and thus to exclude all hostile fleets; the 
city so fortified by nature as to be impregnable by land; 
and yet, when those gates are thrown open, all the com- 
merce of the Euxine (or Black) Sea, all the com- 
merce of the Mediterranean and the rich countries that 
the Mediterranean's waters wash, pour their riches into 
this city, beautiful for situation, strong by position, and 
the key to the destiny of the East. There it was that he 
founded his great capital ; there it was that he built mag- 
nificent Christian churches; there it was that he invited 
all the patricians of Rome to emigrate and found new 
homes, homes which he provided for them. The hundreds 
of palaces he erected were designed to be the homes of 
learned men from every part of the world, who were 



"NOT OF THIS WORLD." 29 

invited to that capital to give dignity and influence to it 
because of their genius and their culture. He ransacked 
the whole earth and laid all under contribution in order 
to adorn the city, and such were his spoliations that some 
one sarcastically said that he had done everything except 
to bring back the souls of the great masters, the great 
poets, the great architects, the great sculptors. He had 
brought back all their works, and had done everything 
but to bring back their souls, and make them inhabit the 
city where their works had been collected in such pro- 
fusion. 

It was in the year 313 A. D. that he issued the cele- 
brated edict of Milan, the edict that declared Christianity 
to be the religion of the empire. Then it was that he 
commenced those reforms for which he has been so cele- 
brated and for which the church owes him a great debt of 
gratitude. He was the man who enjoined the observance 
of the Christian Sabbath, the first man who ever enjoined 
it by law, or that forced its observance upon any people. 
Inasmuch as a multitude of Christian churches had been 
demolished during the persecutions of the early emperors, 
Constantine required them all to be rebuilt again, and 
service to be performed in them by those who were not 
to be molested in the duties of their sacred office. 

These are some of the great changes he introduced, 
and at the same time it is perfectly evident from the 
cruelties which he perpetrated that there was an occa- 
sional going back, in heart, to the heathenism with which 
he had been irradicably tainted, making Apollo his God 
as well as Jesus, Apollo with the radiant brow, Apollo 
the matchless beauty, Apollo with the infinitely cultivated 
tastes, Apollo, who charmed the imagination of this man 
so that his homage was divided between Christ and the 
Sun God. These are the things that fill the whole world 



3 o SERMONS. 

with doubt with legard to the fact whether the man was, 
really, ever a true convert to Christianity, or whether the 
alliance that he formed between the state and the church 
was one out of love for the church or as a matter of state 
policy. 

When our Lord said, "My kingdom is not of this 
world," these words cut in twain the recognized policy of 
some of the most enlightened nations of the earth. My 
friends, accustomed as we have been all our lives to 
religious liberty, we are oftentimes under a great illusion 
with regard to the condition of religious freedom outside 
of these United States. In how many governments is 
religion free ? Did you ever try to count them ? I did not 
ask in how many governments is religion tolerated; all 
religions are tolerated ; but who does not see that there is 
a world-wide difference between the toleration of religion 
and the freedom of religion ? If a government has a right 
to tolerate one religion, it has a right to suppress another 
religion, and when the government offers to tolerate 
religion, it offers an insult to every thoughtful man who 
has been instructed out of these holy Scriptures, and 
taught what his rights are by that great charter of human 
rights. Toleration of the worship of God by the permis- 
sion of a government when that right is a gift direct from 
God himself to the soul of man? No, my friends, we 
scorn the permission ; we scorn the indulgence which 
says, "We tolerate you for that God-given gift which is 
equally granted to all men, the right to worship God 
according to the dictates of conscience. Therefore, one 
of the happiest things that ever occurred in the organiza- 
tion of this government was the fact that in the Consti- 
tution of the United States, Congress is forever prohibited 
from establishing any form of religion or interfering with 
the religion of any Christian people. It is a noble article 



"NOT OF THIS WORLD." 31 

in the same Constitution that in these United States there 
never shall be any religious test that has to be submitted 
to in order to acquire or to hold any office of trust under 
this government. It is true the States can make their own 
regulations, and have done so, with regard to religious 
freedom ; and it gives us a great deal of pleasure to know 
that Virginia was the first State to sever entirely the 
connection between church and state. The conflict was a 
very long one — it took more years to establish religious 
freedom than it did to vindicate the independence of the 
United States ; but at last it was done, and the article of 
which I speak was embodied in the Constitution in 1785. 
The next State to adopt such a policy was Maryland, and 
after Maryland came New York, and forty years after- 
wards, Connecticut, in 1816. The last link between church 
and state was not dissolved in Massachusetts until the 
year 1831, but now there are no religious tests and no 
religious discriminations in any of the States of this great 
Union. 

Now we are beginning, my friends, to recognize the 
infinite wisdom that lies in that little statement of our 
Lord when he said, "My kingdom is not of this world," 
by which he meant that it did not have its origin in this 
world ; that it was not the product of the times ; that no 
tendency evolved it; that there was no philosophy upon 
the globe, no religion upon the globe, no nation upon the 
globe that could originate a system like Christianity. Cer- 
tainly it could not have been originated in Athens. If 
you remember the ground that we went over on last 
Sunday afternoon, the two great rival theological sects 
were those of the Epicureans and Stoics. Christianity 
did not emanate from the religion of pleasure, nor did it 
emanate from the religion of pride ; Christianity scorned 
both as the foundation upon which it was to build. It 



32 SERMONS. 

could not have originated in Rome in its decadence, for 
then was the very darkest period in Roman history, when 
all faith in men had been lost, when all faith in the gods 
of the Pantheon had been lost, when the very hope of 
immortality was well-nigh extinguished in the world. 
Christ's kingdom was not of this world because it had a 
different origin, and next because it has a different 
purpose from that of any worldly kingdom. What is the 
purpose of the worldly kingdom ? It is to augment com- 
merce, it is to multiply the material resources of the 
people, it is to prepare room for a great population, it is 
to do everything to make the nation so powerful as to 
hold its own against all coiners, so strong as to command 
the respect of the world. Christianity never attempts this 
directly ; it does it all indirectly. Christianity undermines 
whatever is not fit to survive in governments simply by 
rectifying the principles of the people, and it gives sup- 
port to all that is fit to survive by giving its sanction. 
The purpose of Christianity is different — it is to restore 
the lost image of God in the soul of man; it is to make 
one endowed with that awful attribute at which we 
shudder when we think of its true meaning, endowed 
with the awful attribute of immortality, so to live that 
immortality will be an eternal blessing and benediction, 
and not an everlasting curse. The great object of Chris- 
tianity is so, by the preaching of a pure gospel, to influ- 
ence the consciences and hearts of men as to prepare the 
way for the universal reign of the Prince of Peace ; and, 
therefore, Christianity never brings under its wing or 
asks the protection of fleets or armies; it does not rely 
upon human help. "My kingdom is not of this world, for 
then would my servants fight" ; but it is a kingdom 
founded in human intelligence, because it refines and 
elevates human thought ; it is a kingdom founded in the 



"NOT OF THIS WORLD." 33 

human heart, because, as I said just now, such is the 
expulsive power of a new affection that it casts out all 
that is unholy and defiling; it is a kingdom of truth 
established in the soul of man — truth in harmony with 
eternal law, truth in harmony with immortal love. That 
is the kingdom that Christ came to establish in the world. 
"My kingdom is not of this world," and, therefore, when 
there is an alliance between church and state, both are 
equally injured. 

In the fourteenth century, John, the Bishop of Milan, 
inherited a domain, and as, by that inheritance, he was 
to become a temporal prince, he was required to decide 
between the two — to make his choice as to whether he 
would continue to be an ecclesiastic, or whether, renounc- 
ing his mitre, he would be a secular prince. When the 
day of decision came he arose from the throne upon 
which he sat in the cathedral, with a crosier in one hand 
and a drawn sword in the other, and he said, "These are 
my weapons of offence and defence, and with this sword 
I will guard the crosier." My friends, in that little 
incident I have told you what might be crowded into an 
hour's discourse with regard to the unhallowed alliance 
between church and state. Those that combine the two 
say that so far from renouncing the one because we be- 
long to the other, they say, "With this sword I will guard 
the cross, and sword and cross combined shall conquer 
the world." We cannot contemplate such a system as 
that, my friends, without dismay, when we remember the 
injury that it does to the church, and how it is calculated 
to fill the church with corrupt men, with men who seek 
high positions, with men who will demean themselves 
and debase themselves in order to obtain the favor of the 
state. It degrades the citizen when the state undertakes 
to control religious creeds and religious beliefs; it de- 
3 



34 SERMONS. 

grades the citizen because it deprives him of the right of 
conscience, and the independence of a man to think for 
himself and decide for himself the great questions that 
lie between the soul and God. You have a state of de- 
graded people when they are compelled to suppress that 
which God has given for the elevation and for the 
development of man's noblest nature. 

The church commits a great mistake when it under- 
takes to control political movements, when it espouses 
the cause of either party, when it gives its influence to a 
particular candidate, when it tries, by any method, to 
interfere with legislation — then the church is degrading 
itself; and the state is assuming an unwarrantable 
authority when it attempts to regulate the creeds of the 
church, when it attempts to impose penalties upon Chris- 
tian people for doing what conscience requires them to 
do. So that, look at the matter all around, in whatever 
light you may contemplate it, we have a shrinking back 
from the thought that the day shall ever come when it will 
even be proposed in this country to form any connection 
between church and state. We ought to dwell upon and 
love this great truth announced in these words of our 
Lord when he said, "My kingdom is not of this world." 

When it was proposed to disestablish the churches in 
the different States of this Union, some of the best men 
were filled with fear. The Rev. Dr. Dwight, of Yale 
College, was almost tempted to put on mourning, because 
he thought religion would decline when the fostering 
arm of the State was no longer around it; and another 
man, whose name I will not mention, also said it was the 
darkest day in his life, and yet that man lived to bless 
God that he had seen that very day, for he saw a day 
that was luminous now in memory, dark as it was in past 
experience. Now the happy thing is that this subject 



"NOT OF THIS WORLD.'* 35 

admits of a demonstration, that the men who feared the 
church would decline when the aid of the state was taken 
away, have lived to see their mistake because they see the 
triumph of the system everywhere ; and, therefore, if you 
look at it for a single moment, you will see that it opens 
up an exceedingly interesting department of investigation. 
All state influence in behalf of the church, revenues 
coming from the state in behalf of missions, or for the 
building of colleges and schools, being taken away, timid 
men thought there would be a decline in those great 
interests. On the contrary, the moment the church was 
thrown upon its own resources it became conscious of its 
elasticity, it became conscious of a vigor it never before 
experienced, and the force and sweetness of which it had 
not tasted. The consequence has been that there is not a 
country in the world where education has been so well 
provided for by free schools, by the establishment of 
academies of high grades, colleges under Christian influ- 
ence, for three fourths of all the colleges and universities 
in the United States are in the hands of Christian men, 
who exert a Christian influence, influences that are salu- 
tary, and influences that are saving, that are non-sectarian 
but evangelistic. There is no country that so well pro- 
vides for the education of its children as this country 
does, and when I am speaking about children I am 
reminded that next Sunday is Children's Day, and that 
there are more children in the Sunday-schools of the 
United States than in all Europe put together. Is that 
not wonderful, when we think of great populous countries 
like Germany, like Great Britain, like other countries that 
are Protestant — there are more Sunday-school children 
in the United States than in all the rest of the world 
combined, so that we have some twelve or thirteen mil- 
lion of litfle ones the best day of the week to learn a 



36 SERMONS. 

lesson out of the best text-book in all the universe, and 
from Christian men and Christian women. And then 
there never were such church buildings as these in the 
United States. I do not mean that the old cathedrals of 
Europe do not immeasurably surpass them, but these 
cathedrals were the production of the middle ages, for 
that was the way the church expressed its devotion in 
the middle ages. When it did not have missions to under- 
take, when it did not have benevolent work to do it ex- 
pressed its devotion by the erection of great cathedrals. 
When you compare these edifices in the United States 
with those of the old world, you see what a free Chris- 
tianity can do for the erection of commodious churches 
adapted to the purpose for which they were designed — 
places where it is convenient to speak, and where it is 
easy to hear and where the people are permitted to wor- 
ship God without molestation. Then again, there is not 
a country in the world that makes such provision for the 
supply of its own spiritual destitution as the United 
States. Is it not wonderful, my friends, that we have a 
better system for supplying destitute neighborhoods than 
even a little country like England, not as large as a great 
many of our States, and where we would think the whole 
country could be districted, and where you would think 
any and all individuals might be reached? There is 
probably more spiritual destitution in Great Britain in 
certain localities than can be found anywhere in the 
United States, with all the splendid civilization which 
we so much admire and extol, and ever will admire and 
extol. And then, not only has provision been made to 
supply this destitution at home, but there never was a 
land in which the missionary fires burnt upward with 
such a steady, vestal flame toward heaven as this land; 
it is the missionary country of the world. 



"NOT OF THIS WORLD." 37 

So, my friends, we thank God and take courage when 
we see what has been accomplished, and we see in all 
these things the tokens ( O may God hasten it in our own 
time) of the final triumphs of the cross, and of the certain 
coming of the time when that name, which is above every 
name, shall shine like a radiant star upon the very fore- 
head of our redeemed humanity. And with a hope like 
this thrilling our hearts we may say, "The glorious com- 
pany of the apostles praise thee, O Lord : the noble army 
of martyrs praise thee ; thy holy church throughout the 
world doth acknowledge thee." 



III. 

THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 

"His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loveth 
the gates of Zion more than the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious 
things are spoken of thee, O city of God." — Psalm lxxxvii. 1-3. 

T T has pleased God to select mountain summits as the 
■*■ places of his most impressive manifestations of himself 
to men. Of course, he has not told us the reason of this. 
He could reveal himself in the valley or upon the plain. 
He could fill the valleys with his beauty and the plains 
with his glory, but he has chosen to take the mountain 
tops as the places for his most resplendent revelation of 
himself. With these lofty summits we have connected 
the most important events in biblical history. From these 
mountain peaks hang suspended the great eras and the 
great events that mark the progress of the church of God 
in the world. So that when one becomes familiar with 
what is in the Bible with regard to the mountains, he 
gets a very tolerable acquaintance with the entire reve- 
lation which God has given us in his Word. There is a 
wonderful connection between sacred history and sacred 
mountains. It was upon Mt. Ararat that the ark rested, 
and that the human race began anew as if from a second 
Genesis. It was on the slope of Mt. Moriah that Abraham 
climbed, with Isaac behind him carrying wood for the 
sacrifice; and it was there that God provided the vicari- 
ous victim that prefigures to us the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sins of the world ; and it was upon the 
top of Mt. Moriah that Abraham's faith shone forth with 



THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 39 

a supernal lustre. It was upon Mt. Sinai that God came 
down in thunder and fire to make known his laws to men, 
and to give that summary which no skeptic can believe 
could have been invented by a man like Moses — those 
ten immortal lines that underlie all the jurisprudence and 
governments of the world. No one but a man partially 
insane can believe that a plain, unlettered shepherd from 
Horeb could give a condensed law that could endure 
through all the changes, all the forms of civilization, from 
the beginning to the end of time. It was upon Mt. 
Carmel, that rises abruptly out of the water, with the blue 
Mediterranean breaking into silvery foam at its base, 
that the prophets and the priests of Baal held their mighty 
duel, when the truth was victorious and vindicated in the 
eyes of the nation. It was upon the summit of Mt. Nebo 
that Moses went up to the greatest height which he could 
reach upon the earth, and it was to that summit that God 
came down and took him higher. It was upon Mt. 
Hermon that our Lord was transfigured, and that moun- 
tain still seems to glow with something of the divine 
radiance that covered it when celestial visitors came down 
to commune with him respecting the things he was to 
accomplish at Jerusalem. It was upon Calvary, clothed 
with a sacredness all its own, that our Lord hung upon 
the bitter cross, where he purchased redemption for us. 
It was upon Mt. Olivet, when that redemption was 
accomplished, he went up to take the seat — the middle 
seat — on the celestial throne ; and perhaps nothing gives 
to the mountains of Palestine a more peculiar tenderness 
than the associations we have between them and our Lord 
himself. "Seeing the multitude he went up into a 
mountain, and when he was set, he opened his mouth," 
and preached the first sermon he delivered, beginning 
with the ten benedictions. Oh! the solemnity of the 



40 SERMONS. 

mountains in the midnight air. Mountains were the 
oratory to which Jesus went, and where he held com- 
munion with his Father; and, therefore, we find that the 
mountains of Scripture show the trend of revelation ; and 
I do not know what else to compare them to that will so 
express the idea I wish to impress upon you — that these 
mountains through the Holy Land form the great piers 
of the bridge which spans all human history, from the 
beginning until the time when the curtain will drop upon 
the completed drama of the world. 

When God's people were led away into captivity, one 
reason of the melancholy of their lives consisted in the 
fact that they no longer had a glimpse of the mountains 
to which they were accustomed. The plains of Nineveh 
and Babylon were unbroken by a single eminence. "They 
hung their harps on the willow when they remembered 
Zion" — the high and holy hill they had been accustomed 
to climb — that they went up three times a year to offer 
their joyful homage in the temple. And when the High- 
land regiments are moved to the East Indies or other 
low-lying parts of the world, they long for the wind- 
swept mountains of the north, with the little cottages 
nestling at their feet, where in their youth they learned to 
speak the truth, to love God and do right. So those 
mountains in the Scripture are made a symbol of refuge, 
of safety, of home. 

When the patriot Bonnivard was imprisoned in the 
dungeon of Chillon, in a dark dungeon below the water, 
he sometimes made a temporary ladder that he might 
climb to the one small window and get a glimpse of the 
Alps, with their snow-clad summits and the torrents 
rushing down their slopes, and the blue sky beyond ; but 
his despondency came back when he went down to the 
darkness and slime of his dreary dungeon. 



THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 41 

We may climb some Pisgah and look out on the scene 
which God has spread for our joy and comfort. 

So we find much made of the mountains of Scripture 
as emblems of divine protection — the safety of those 
who find their refuge in them. "His foundation is in the 
holy mountains." That is, what God has founded is in 
the holy mountains : that which is dearest to God, namely, 
his church, has its foundation upon those great attributes 
which the mountain represents. "As the mountains are 
round about Jerusalem, the Lord is round about his 
people ;" his righteousness, his power — great mountains 
of safety, of protection. When God wanted to establish 
that which is dearest in this world, he did not take the 
valley or the plain, but he took the mountain, where he 
based the church upon foundations firmer than the primi- 
tive granite that supports the other strata upon it that 
make the earth. And so the Psalmist says, "His founda- 
tion is in his holy mountains." It was impossible in 
ancient times for the tribes to go to Jerusalem without 
remembering as they approached the city how high it was 
above all the surrounding country; and, therefore, we 
always read in the Bible about going "up to Jerusalem." 
Some of the greatest cities of the world were built upon 
dead levels. It was so in Memphis, it was so with Thebes, 
it was so with Tyre, it was so with Damascus, it was so 
with Baalbeck ; but the city of Jerusalem was built upon 
its ancient hills ; and, therefore, it is that we have, in the 
very opening verse of this Psalm, this great truth told us : 
the stability of the church of God, its foundations being 
the perfections of the Almighty, and the great covenants 
which he makes with his people, and the great covenants 
which he made with his Son. We carry out this idea to 
its fuller development, and find the church which had its 
foundation in Jerusalem become the church which had its 



42 SERMONS. 

foundation in the times of our Lord. It is built on the 
patriarchs and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being 
the chief corner-stone! 

"On the Rock of Ages founded, 

What can shake thy sure repose? 
With salvation's walls surrounded, 
Thou canst smile at all thy foes." 

"Beautiful for situation, the joy of all the earth was 
Mount Zion." This was the city of the great King. 
"Mark ye well its bulwarks, for here was the city of the 
great King!" 

And of Zion it is said, "The Lord loveth the gates of 
Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." The word 
"Zion" by metonomy is put for the whole city. Zion, as 
you know, was a single mountain in Jerusalem. Upon 
it David built his dwelling. Nearby was Mt. Moriah, 
upon which afterwards the temple was built. But in the 
process of time the whole city took the name of Zion. 
Notice in the study of analysis how a word with one 
meaning grows by successive accretions as the ages move 
on. Zion once meant only a single hill, then the whole 
of Jerusalem, then it stood for God's ancient church, the 
church over which he was King in the days of the the- 
ocracy; and then when other times and dispensations 
came, God said, "I have set my King upon my holy city 
of Zion." Then the word expanded until it embraced the 
entire Christian Church. We have a beautiful example 
of this in the passage of Scripture I read. "Ye are not 
come to the mountain that cannot be touched ; but ye are 
come to Mt. Zion, to the city of the living God, to the 
heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable company of 
angels, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to 
Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant." And if you 



THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 43 

want to see how a word continues to grow, you will turn 
over to the last leaves of the Bible (Rev. xiv. 1-3), and 
you will find that it is not only the church militant, but is 
applied to the church triumphant ! That mountain of 
infinite sanctity upon which God reigns is the Mt. Zion 
above, and it is designated as the Zion of God. 

Now, it is true that "the Lord loveth the gates of 
Zion better than all the dwellings of Jacob." And why 
the gates? Because in ancient cities the gates are the 
fortified places, the emblem of the strength of the city, 
and you may ascertain the force necessary to capture a 
city by the strength of its gates. Then in times of peace 
the gates were the chief places of concourse — where men 
of influence and power sat and where they held their 
conferences. And in process of time the gates became 
the symbols of all that gave eminence and authority in 
the surrounding country over which it dominated. "The 
Lord loveth the gates of Zion" — that is, his whole collec- 
tive church — "more than he loves the dwellings of Jacob." 
But we are not to think that this meant any disparage- 
ment to the separate homes inhabited by his people. 
The text does not say that the Lord does not love the 
dwellings of Jacob; on the contrary, it implies that he 
does love them — only that he loved Zion more. Surely 
he loves the pious households, where love and friendship 
meet, where the father is the priest, and where morning 
and evening prayers are offered, and where the children 
gather around the family altar, and where they are taught 
to speak the truth and to reverence the Sabbath, and to 
obey their parents. The Christian family is the founda- 
tion of the state; and the character of every republic, 
every kingdom, depends upon the character of the fam- 
ilies that compose the nation. When God reigns in the 
family, then God will reign in the state ; and although it 



44 SERMONS. 

will not be a theocracy, in the old definition of the word, 
that people will be a people whose God is the Lord, and 
that nation will have the exaltation that righteousness 
brings. The Apostle sent his salutation to the church in 
the house, and so long as there are apostolic, evangelical 
churches in households, there will be the same kind of 
churches in the commonwealth, nation, world. How dear 
to God are his people, bound together by the ties of holy 
affection; but dearer is the collective church: sweet the 
songs that go up from the family altar, but richer are the 
harmonies and grander the anthems that go up from the 
entire church of God. As the world turns on its orbit, 
and as the world revolves the bright sequence runs — the 
collective prayers and praises of his people ascend to him ! 
And God loves the church because the church in its 
united capacity, with its organized departments of holy 
work, can do more for the advance of his kingdom than 
individual families can do. The church is the repository 
of his truth, the place for the administration of his holy 
sacraments. The church contains an order of men who 
have to stand up in the presence of the multitude, and 
remind them of their obligations to God. No matter what 
form of government they are under, God maintains be- 
tween the human race and himself the proper relation. 
It is the office of the church to preserve this Bible in its 
purity, its integrity, and to translate it into all the tongues 
that are spoken on the earth, and then send men to all 
parts of the earth with it. The church is dear to God. It 
is the place where the cross is lifted high. Every faithful 
minister of God lifts up Christ on the cross, and Christ 
fulfills his promise when he says, "And I, if I be lifted up, 
will draw all men unto me." The church is the place 
where more people are converted than anywhere else. 
The Word is salvation to every one that believes. As the 



i 



THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 45 

church is the conservator of the truth, men ought to 
admire the church on this account. The church is the 
starting-place of every benevolent enterprise the world 
has ever known, for the lifting up of the fallen, and for 
the reformation of the vicious. People ought to recall 
that the first hospital was originated by the church. 
Beautiful was the spectacle of the hospital, in which the 
poor, the infirm and the maimed were gathered. So 
beautiful was this that Julian the Apostate, to recommend 
his heathen doctrines, began to establish hospitals as a 
matter of policy. He wanted to decry Christian influence 
by showing that heathenism could do the same thing. If 
you go to heathen cities now, you will find that almost the 
only measures instituted for the relief of the poor and 
suffering are the measures instituted and carried out by 
the churches and by the individual members of the 
churches. Therefore, the church has claims upon the men 
of the world that the men of the world should honor. 
"God loveth the gates of Jacob," but he loves the church 
itself better than the individual household, for there is 
his throne, there is his altar, there is the refuge, and there 
is the home of his people, and from it emanates all 
influences that are designed to bless the world. Then, 
my friends, I do not know of anything more natural than 
that if God has this regard for his church, that all men 
for whose benefit the church was organized should come 
to it, and give it all the help they can by their influence, 
their time, by everything that can advance its influence 
in the world. For God says, "I have chosen Zion ; this is 
my rest ; here will I dwell ; for I have desired it." God 
makes Zion glorious by the incarnation of his Son; he 
makes the church the body of Jesus Christ, he being its 
Head ; he makes the church the place where the Spirit 
dwells, and sends forth quickening, consoling, sanctifying 



46 SERMONS. 

power; if he makes the church the one luminary that 
shines through the sin-darkened world, ought not every 
fair, right-minded man come up to the help of the church 
with all that he can bring ? Oh ! what a lamentable mis- 
take men make. Men that think they must have perfec- 
tion before they become members of the church, for- 
getting that the church is the training-school, the place 
for every man who is sorry for his sins, who relies upon 
Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Every man who feels these 
things should be a church member. There are many who 
say, "I know I am a sinner." They should go on and 
say, "I come to thee, O Saviour, to save me from my 
sins." Every man is welcome who can say these things. 
My friends, if the dear Lord came into the world to 
preach his own gospel, and then died upon the cross to 
give you salvation, do not you think he has some rights ? 
Do not you think Jesus Christ has some rights — rights 
to your love, reverence and service? Christ loved the 
church and gave himself for it. He gave his tears, he 
gave his toil, he gave his blood ; and now he turns to you 
and says, "My friend, my friend, what are you doing for 
the church I loved? You have the responsibility of souls. 
You have immortality. What are you doing for me?" 
My friends, if every man in this house knew the possi- 
bilities of their lives, it seems to me they would leap for 
joy. I cannot frame a sentence in this pulpit that can 
adequately express that thought. If a man has health to 
come to the house of God to-day, he can obtain salvation 
by simple acceptance of it. And when I think of this life, 
this eternal life, that cannot be numbered by hundreds 
of centuries, and then remember that many of the men 
here have only a few years before them — when they 
think of the possibilities of their life, they should leap for 
joy. Who will may come and say, "I recognize thy claim 



THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 47 

and my duty, and I trust thy promises; and although I 
am a poor, weak creature, I rely upon the promise that I 
shall be helped, and believe that I shall go on from 
strength to strength until I shall rise in the city of God." 

"Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our 
God." So I close with reference to that. Glorious things 
are spoken of the city of our God ! I wish you would go 
back and recall the names of the men who have spoken 
in Jerusalem. Only think of the kings who have walked 
those streets ! Only think of the prophets who have 
sung its praises. "Glorious things are spoken of thee, 
O city of God." We have an ancient city, venerable for 
its antiquity and memories on the banks of the Tiber. 
Philosophers, orators, poets have walked through the 
streets of Rome, but, my friends, did men walk through 
its streets whose names can be put by the side of David, 
and Solomon, and Isaiah, and the apostles, and the mar- 
tyrs ? Oh ! glorious men have spoken in thee, O city of 
my God! Such a succession of men as this world never 
saw before. And the men that spoke in ancient Athens, 
what are they now but dim shades ? Is there any man in 
this house who is better to-day because of all that Socrates 
or Plato ever spoke? They please the intellect, but what 
have they ever done for the real good of the world ? But, 
my friends, the names of David, of Isaiah, of Paul ; the 
names of such men as Athanasias, or Augustine, such 
men as Knox, Luther, Calvin, and Huss, that have shaken 
society and revolutionized the world — to whom shall we 
compare them? 

If I had time this morning, I would read you the 
whole of this sixtieth chapter of Isaiah. I do not know 
of anything more inspiring than the sixtieth chapter of 
Isaiah, in which he gives that glowing picture of the 
manner in which the church shall be enlarged as all men 



48 SERMONS. 

contribute to its glory, laying down their treasures; as 
science comes, and genius comes, and harmony comes, 
and devotion comes, as the world comes, and gives its 
treasures into the church of God. If anything is finer, it 
is the twenty-first chapter of Revelation, when all this is 
performed, and the eye glistens when St. John says, "I 
saw the new Jerusalem, arrayed in the glory of God." 
And when he goes on to speak of the characteristics of 
the city of God, and declares that there is no sun, because 
the Lamb is the light thereof. And when he says there 
is no pain — no pain of body, no anguish of heart ; and 
where his servants shall serve him, and where the re- 
deemed shall be blessed for evermore. "Glorious things 
are spoken of thee, O city of God." Let us be servants 
in thy palaces ; let us serve at thy altars ; let us be par- 
takers of thy glory ! 

"Blest seats ! through rude and stormy scenes, 
I onward press to you !" 



IV. 
THE RIVER THAT MAKETH GLAD. 

"There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the 
city of God." — Psalm xivi. 4. 

NO matter how much we might try to become 
acquainted with a memorable place, by means of 
our own reading, or by what others may tell us in the 
way of information, there is nothing like seeing it our- 
selves. We may study most diligently in order to inform 
ourselves about some interesting object, but after all, if 
we are going to get >a clear and a correct conception, it 
must be by ocular inspection. For example, we might 
have the plan of a great city, we have illustrated maps, 
we have engravings and photographic representations of 
the principal buildings and monuments which the city 
contains, but a walk of one hour on foot through that 
city and a look upon those places will give us a clearer 
idea of its configuration, of its style, of its general exter- 
nal character than we can get by months of such reading 
and study. The first sight of a very interesting object 
generally makes the deepest impression. There are some 
things that we cannot have intensely but once. Impres- 
sions may be renewed, but there is nothing like the vivid- 
ness of the first impression. There are some objects in 
nature that affect us powerfully the first time we see them, 
such as, for example, the great chain of the snow-clad 
Alps, or the first view of the ocean, or of some mighty 
cataract. There are places that have no intrinsic interest 
whatever that profoundly affect us the first time we see 
4 



50 SERMONS. 

them ; they have no intrinsic interest, and yet they move 
our emotional natures powerfully. A battle-field is not 
at all different in appearance from the wheat-field, but, 
ah ! the associations connected with the battle-field, where 
perhaps the liberties of a people were won or lost. It has 
no intrinsic importance more than any other field, but by 
the power of mental and moral association. We look 
upon it with a thrill of emotion, although the hills and 
plains and trees that grow upon it may be just like other 
hills and plains and trees. 

The same thing of which I speak is also true of the 
great rivers of the earth. The first sight of a historic 
river, like the Rhine, the Nile, or the Tiber or the Jordan, 
makes an impression that becomes a part of memory. 
You say, "All water flows between two banks, and all 
water is composed of the same elements, and has the 
same general aspect." So it is, my friends, and yet when 
you stand on the banks of the Nile, that river is no more 
like the Tiber, or when you stand on the banks of the 
Tiber, that river is no more like the Jordan than if they 
were made of different materials, and as if the outward 
aspect of them were different. And all this comes from 
the power of association, from the long memories which 
we have cherished because of the events that have oc- 
curred upon the banks of these rivers, and because of the 
effect which they themselves produce physically and 
otherwise on the countries through which they flow. 

I think I will make my meaning perfectly distinct 
when I ask you to think of the associations that belong, 
for instance, to the river Jordan. It is a narrow stream ; 
it is usually a turbid stream; there is nothing more 
impressive in it than there is in the Appomattox at Farm- 
ville to the outward eye, and yet any one who stands on 
the banks of that river has a rush of memory that goes 



THE RIVER THAT MAKETH GLAD. 51 

back two or three thousand years. We think about the 
time when, after the great wanderings in the desert, the 
trained and disciplined tribes of God, under the lead of 
their great Captain, crossed that narrow river, and took 
possession of the land that had been promised to their 
fathers fcur hundred years before ; we remember how 
the old prophet once came down to its banks and wrapped 
his mantle together and smote the waters, and they 
receded so that he passed through dry shod ; we remem- 
ber how, when Joseph carried the embalmed remains of 
his father to the place where he wanted to rest, there was 
a great mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, beyond 
the Jordan ; we remember that it was upon the banks of 
that river that the great preacher that shook the world 
walked, when John the Baptist cried out, "Repent, for 
the kingdom of heaven is at hand" ; it was upon the 
banks of that river that Jesus stood when the heavens 
were opened above him in answer to his prayer, and when 
the Spirit in the form of a gentle dove, white winged and 
pure, fluttered down and rested upon him. The Jordan 
is a sacred river, not only to the Christian and to the Jew, 
but to the wandering Israelite, who dips his bloody feet 
in the waters, upon whose banks his fathers pitched their 
camps three thousand years ago. There is not a river 
that flows that awakens so many recollections, or that has 
connected with it so many sacred associations by people 
scattered all over the world as the Jordan. There is 
something impressive to my mind in the fact that on the 
plains of India, or wherever the Mohammedan has a 
mosque, he reveres the Jordan just as much as the settler, 
the immigrant who has built a cabin on the side of the 
Rockv Mountains. So the Orient and the Occident, the 
far East and the distant West, unite in paying their 
tribute of homage to this little river. 



52 SERMONS. 

Moreover, these rivers are symbols of great spiritual 
truths, and I am going now to call your attention to an 
interesting fact — that a river runs through the entire 
continent of Bible truth, from Genesis to Revelation. 
Eastward out of Eden went that river that parted into 
four branches ; and we turn over to the last page of the 
Bible, and the seer tells us, "And he showed me a pure 
river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of 
the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the 
street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the 
tree of life, . . . and the leaves of the tree were for 
the healing of the nations." The river which started in 
Eden began its gentle flow through the world; it grew 
deeper, it grew wider as it ran, and in what sweet strains 
the Psalmist celebrates that river, how beautifully he 
presents it to our vision in the text, "There is a river, the 
streams whereof shall make glad the city of God" ! And 
when we turn over to Isaiah we find that his poetic fancy 
was quickened and refreshed at the very thought of this 
river. "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
glad; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the 
rose." What a charming commentary that is upon the 
text! "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make 
glad the city of God." Isaiah tells us, when he thinks 
about that, that wherever that river flows the whole land 
blossoms and blooms like the very garden of the Lord. 
We can hardly look upon any of the latter pages of the 
prophecy of Isaiah without seeing something illustrative 
of this great truth ; and what interests us so, my friends, 
is the fact that this river that is said to run through 
the world, that commenced with the creation, that began 
to flow before Adam began to breathe, and has been 
flowing on through all the generations, is symbolic of 
the greatest truth that revelation itself reveals, for what 



THE RIVER THAT MAKETH GLAD. 53 

is this river but the grace of God flowing through its 
appointed channels, flowing through the visible church, 
with its ordinances and sacraments flowing through the 
revealed Word, which makes known what God is, and 
what we are and what we may be, and which brings to 
the world those blessings which first civilize and then 
evangelize the nations. Oh ! this the river, "the streams 
whereof make glad the city of God !" But the ancient city 
of God in Palestine did not have any river; how about 
that? Jerusalem was the only famous city of the world 
that did not stand upon a river; it was surrounded by 
great hills, and not even the Jordan flowed beneath its 
walls. There was a celestial streamlet which ran through 
the city of Jerusalem that was mightier in its influence 
than the Euphrates, upon which the great oriental des- 
potic cities that ruled the world were planted. I am going 
now to tell you about that stream, and make it illustrate 
my text. 

The little brook Siloam, as you noticed if you followed 
me as I read those verses from Ezekiel, flowed from 
under the temple, flowed from beneath the altar, but it 
did not rise under the temple. It rose in the western hill 
that lay beyond Jerusalem ; and good, wise King Heze- 
kiah did for his city what was the city's salvation. By a 
secret aqueduct he conducted the water from that un- 
failing fountain in the western hills, first beneath the 
western walls of the city, and then underneath the temple, 
so that from the eastern side of the temple these waters 
were seen issuing out, and so flowed down through the 
streets of Jerusalem. The wisdom of his expedient con- 
sisted in this, that when the city was besieged, as it was 
so often, the supply of water never could be cut off by 
turning the stream, even as great rivers were sometimes 
turned by the besiegers of the cities, and the inhabitants 



54 SERMONS. 

left utterly destitute of that without which life cannot be 
sustained. Because of the prudence and foresight of 
Hezekiah there was always a supply of water that never 
could be cut off, sufficient for the necessities of all the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem. 

That is the first fact, but the next one is this, that 
these waters flowed in a particular way, they flowed from 
under the altar. If the river is the symbol of the grace of 
God, please remember that God chooses the channels 
through which that grace shall flow to men. The grace 
of God is something invisible, but there are visible chan- 
nels through which that grace flows, and one of these is 
the outwardly organized church. If we want to get near 
these refreshing waters, we have to come and take our 
place at the foot of the cross ; if we want to drink of 
those fountains we have to stoop down and humble our- 
selves, and with a sense of inward thirst which cannot 
otherwise be satisfied, we must drink of that life-giving 
stream. 

Ezekiel tells us that with regard to this stream that 
was consecrated at the very beginning of its flow, wher- 
ever it went throughout the land it healed everything it 
touched that needed healing, and he gives us a most 
extraordinary illustration of what he means. He says 
these waters ran down and flowed into the Dead Sea. 
The Dead Sea, you know, is a water so vile, so acrid, 
that no living thing can survive in it. There is not a fish 
in the entire sea, not one; and yet Ezekiel's metaphor is 
this, that if this life-bringing river only flows down and 
mingles with the sea, the waters of the Dead Sea them- 
selves shall be cured and made fresh, so that it shall be 
filled with animated life. Wherever this river goes it 
carries with it cleansing, it carries with it healing; and 
in this respect it reminds us of what happens in the 



THE RIVER THAT MAKETH GLAD. 55 

vicinity of the city of Geneva. Two rivers come together 
there — the Rhone, flowing bright and blue as the bright 
blue heaven above it, and mingling with the pellucid 
waters of the Rhone comes the turbid Arve, flowing 
through clay soils and fed with the dirty debris of the 
mountains and of the glaciers through which its waters 
percolate. When this muddy stream meets with the 
waters of the blue Rhone, such is the antagonism between 
the waters that they will not mingle. They flow on, two 
distinct rivers, with a line of demarcation between them 
visible to the eye. Side by side they flow, but as they 
flow a process commences and continues until by and by 
you notice that the clear water begins to triumph over 
the turbid. On the right bank, along which the turbid 
stream flows, that stream grows narrower and nar- 
rower, and the waters become more and more purified 
as they run, until at last the Rhone triumphs. A few 
leagues from the city all trace of the discoloration is 
gone. And so, my friends, in that figure we have, I 
think, one of the most beautiful illustrations of what this 
gospel river will do for this world, all contaminated as 
it is by ten thousand of vices and abominations. In the 
triumph of the Rhone I see a prophecy of the triumph 
of the gospel, and I believe the day will come when the 
cleansing power of that water will not only be felt by the 
nations of the earth that are now most besotted, most 
degraded, but that the purifying power of these waters 
shall be felt and experienced by every individual soul until 
humanity shall be washed clean and be made pure. 

Next, we are told that wherever these waters flowed 
there was a fringe of vegetation upon the banks, the fir 
tree, the olive tree, the myrtle, the green grass, the ver- 
dant flowers — beauty on either bank, beauty on both 
banks, wherever this river flowed. Perhaps there is not 



56 SERMONS. 

such an arid looking country on the globe as Egypt 
during the month of August, but there comes a time when 
the inhabitants turn their faces northward and scan the 
heavens. By and by a strange haze settles over the land- 
scape — no clouds, because it is a rainless land, and all 
vegetation would perish everywhere if the people had to 
depend upon rains. Anxious eyes are turned toward a 
certain part of the horison, and by and by the hope is not 
disappointed, for the inundation of the Nile begins ; by 
and by its banks are full ; by and by they overflow, 
and the water runs over the parched plains, and there it 
lingers certain days; by and by the water subsides, and 
in a short time the vast plain becomes emerald ; it stands 
dressed in living green until it changes for something 
more beautiful, and that change comes when all the plain 
is gold with the yellow harvest, making Egypt the 
granary of the East. And so it is with this river of 
which the prophet speaks. In whatever part of the world 
it flows see how it awakens the intelligence of men; see 
what reforms it inaugurates ; wherever these waters 
come what new forms of life spring up in their beauty, in 
their symmetry, in their strength. Just in proportion as 
any nation becomes evangelized that nation is strong in 
all the elements that make a people of true progress and 
true power. It is obliged to be so — that wherever the 
gospel flows it carries certain adjuncts with it that con- 
stitute the very life-blood of the world. Wherever this 
gospel goes it establishes churches, with their ordinances 
and with their sacraments ; it carries with it the written 
Word of God, and no book was ever written that so 
awakens human intelligence; there never was such a 
book that was such an agitator, never such a revolutionist 
— never a book that so stirs the thought, the emotion of 
men. A Bible-reading people is always a free people and 



THE RIVER THAT MAKETH GLAD. 57 

a strong people at the last, for the Bible makes men 
acquainted with their rights and then fires them with a 
determination to maintain those rights, and they do. 
The Bible teaches men not to bow at the feet of a spirit- 
ual despot, and the moment a man is emancipated from 
the thralldom of a spiritual despot, he says, "I am also 
entitled to civil liberty," and, therefore, wherever the 
Bible has gone it has wrought these two great changes. 
Even among the most despotically governed people the 
Bible is the book that teaches men that rulers have duties 
as well as rights, and that the people have rights as well 
as duties, and that is the greatest lesson that a state can 
learn. That is the secret of free and of stable govern- 
ment. 

You recollect to have seen that man described by 
Ezekiel, as he walked along with the measuring line. He 
walked a thousand cubits and measured the depth of the 
water, and it came up to the ankle ; he walked a thousand 
cubits further, it came up to the knees ; a thousand cubits 
more it came up to the loins ; another thousand cubits, 
and it was a river that great galleys and stately ships 
might sail on, but it could no longer be forded. In the 
days of good old Enoch, the seventh from Adam, a little 
handful of people, as many as could sit in these front 
pews, were banded together, and began to call upon the 
name of the Lord. The river was then a rill indeed ; you 
could hardly hear it trickle ; you could only see the glitter 
of it as it began to flow over the sand, but it flowed on; 
and then the patriarchs came, and the judges, and the 
prophets, and the psalmists ; and in the days of David, 
and in the days of Isaiah, it was a splendid river, cele- 
brated as such in immortal song, "There is a river that 
makes glad the city of God." That was true in the days 
of David, and, thank God, that river has been flowing on 



58 SERMONS. 

ever since, deepening as it runs. If the man with the 
measuring line had attempted to ascertain the breadth 
of it, and the depth of it, on the day of Pentecost, he 
would have had a task to perform, and since the day of 
Pentecost the world has been living under the dispensa- 
tion of the Spirit. Now the mightiest force in the world 
is the gospel force, and the strongest institution known 
on earth is the church of God. Out of the church come 
all the institutions of Christian benevolence, and all the 
great enterprises that good people have devised for lifting 
up the neglected classes, the hopeless classes as they are 
sometimes called. There are no hopeless classes, except 
those that the church has ceased to hope for. Whenever 
the church gets hopeless, then the world may get hopeless 
too, but there are no hopeless classes. All the enterprises 
of Christian benevolence by which the unregenerate, the 
debased and the alienated are brought out of their im- 
purity and brought into civilization, these are the work 
of the church. These great institutions by which the 
gospel is disseminated through the world are not invented 
by worldly men — none of them are the devices of 
worldly men. Our boards of publication, our institutions 
for the education of pious youth for the ministry, those 
two great factors of modern civilization, the British and 
Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society, 
with their gigantic presses running day and night, year 
in and year out, scattering millions of Bibles all over the 
world — these are some of the outcomes of the gospel 
wherever it has gone. 

Therefore, we are told that wherever that river cometh 
it giveth light, and "it maketh glad the city of God." Oh ! 
yes, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of 
salvation. I do not know how a man can be happy until 
he drinks of this stream. The grace of God is something 



THE RIVER THAT MAKETH GLAD. 59 

essential to human happiness, because it brings man's 
imperious will so often antagonistic to the divine will, it 
brings it in sweetest harmony with the paternal will that 
is always right ; and when the little finite will merges and 
flows along with the Almighty will, the Omnipotent, ever- 
right will, the holy will of God, then the man starts right, 
then the gospel burns up with a clear, steady flame of 
devotion to God. When the will is harmonized, and when 
the emotions or thoughts are purified, and are all filled 
with the graces of the Spirit, cannot anybody see that 
the man may say, "There is a river whose streams make 
this heart, this conscience, this will, glad." "There is a 
river whose streams make glad the city of God." The 
people who have told the most stupendous falsehood that 
was ever attempted to be palmed upon the world for its 
deception are the people who have represented religion as 
something gloomy, when it was intended as it flows on 
in its beneficent course through the world, that before it 
sighing and sorrow should flee away, and in a sweet train 
should follow thanksgiving and the voice of melody. 

Beloved friends, it comforts me to know that the 
waters of this river can never fail. I do not know 
whether the Nile river may not be interrupted some time 
by a revolution of nature in the East ; it may be so inter- 
rupted as not to overflow its banks, and then comes a 
barren strip of sand where there is now beauty and fer- 
tility; but I know that this river that runs out from 
beneath the temple walls is a river that will never fail. 
God's love is a reservoir. It is a reservoir the depth of 
which cannot be fathomed, and only think that out of 
that reservoir men of all the ages have been drinking and 
drawing whatever supplies they wanted, and the surface 
has not been lowered one hair's breadth for six thousand 
years. Oh! the imperishable character of the grace of 



6o SERMONS. 

God, flowing on forever, undiminished in its force, undi- 
minished in its healing power, undiminished in its power 
to make glad the souls of men. "And the Spirit and the 
Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. 
And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, 
let him take of the water of life freely." I cannot make a 
more friendly wish; I cannot make a more affectionate 
wish than the wish that I do make for every one within 
these walls to-day — that whatever else he may fail to 
secure he will not fail to bend over these waters. They 
will give refreshment to that weary, sad heart; they will 
give purity with all the peace that purity brings; they 
will bring the harmony that will give the happiness that 
comes from harmony, the divine happiness that comes 
from holiness. O that each of us to-day would humbly 
bow and drink of that life-giving stream ! On that last 
great day of the feast Jesus stood where everybody could 
see him, and he cried so that everybody could hear him, 
and he said, "If any man thirst [that means you], let him 
come unto me and drink." 



V. 
A LITTLE SANCTUARY. 

"I will be to them a little sanctuary." — Ezekiel xi. 16. 

ALL the words in our language which have been 
derived from the Latin word sanctus have a kindred 
meaning: sanctity, sanctification, sanction, sanctuary — 
one idea pervades all these derivatives, and that is the 
idea of something hallowed, something consecrated, some- 
thing set apart from a common to a hallowed use. 

In the ancient temple there was one apartment that 
was regarded as the most sacred of all, and when the 
sanctuary was spoken of originally reference was had, 
not to the temple, the whole temple with its different 
courts, but to that one consecrated place over which an 
unlifted veil hung through all the year, a veil that was 
raised only once a year when the high priest entered, 
with blood upon the altar to make intercession for the 
people that stood worshipping without. In the process 
of time, the whole building came to be called the sanc- 
tuary, and then the word was very naturally and properly 
applied to all houses of worship erected in every part of 
the world for the service of the great God. We speak 
of these as sanctuaries, remembering that they are hal- 
lowed places, that they are places of refuge, places of 
rest, places of communion with God, places where men 
are trained for service, where they gather the strength 
with which they go out and wage a warfare against the 
adversaries of the truth, and to labor for the extension of 
the kingdom of truth and righteousness in the world, 



62 SERMONS. 

and where they are prepared for the higher and nobler 
service of the upper sanctuary. 

In order to understand the full force and significance 
of this little text — which does not seem to have anything 
in it at the first reading — we must consider for a moment 
the peculiar history and position of the people at the time 
when the prophet was commanded to tell the scattered 
Israelites that God would be to them "a little sanctuary." 

In ancient times one of the strangest customs that the 
mind can contemplate, then universal, now universally 
obsolete, was common, and that was that when two 
nations made war upon one another, the victorious nation 
carried away hundreds and thousands of the captured 
people, and made them captives in their own land. This 
was especially true of the inhabitants of Palestine, for 
that little country stood just at the angle where three 
great countries touched, and across its narrow territory 
swept the great invading forces — whether thev came 
from the far north, from Babylonia, or Chaldea, or 
whether they came from the south, from the land of 
Egypt sweeping northward — the ground upon which 
the peoole walked was nearly always trembling under the 
tread of warriors, and their ears were seldom without the 
sound of the thunder of the chariots, and the clash of 
splintering swords ; and as a result of an attack upon the 
city of Jerusalem, the people of that citv were carried 
away into captivity — once for a period of seventy years. 
This was the condition of things when the text was 
uttered, and its immediate occasion. The few Jews that 
had been left behind in the land of Palestine, who were 
still inhabiting the citv of Jerusalem, regarded themselves 
as the peculiar favorites of Heaven, because thev had 
escaped captivitv; and they were prone to look with 
contempt upon their brethren, who had been made captive 



A LITTLE SANCTUARY. 63 

by the heathen, whose ways and principles they imagined 
their brethren had to some extent adopted ; they did not 
look upon them as having maintained the true faith in 
the God of Israel ; and, therefore, in this chapter of the 
prophecy of Ezekiel, we find that these home Jews, these 
Jerusalem Jews, were in the habit of speaking disparag- 
ingly of their brethren in captivity, saying, "We are the 
people of the Lord, and in possession of the inheritance 
which the Lord has given us ; we have our home, our 
city, we have our church, our temple." Then it was that 
the prophet was directed to go and bear this message to 
the captives who had been stolen, who "hung their harps 
upon the willows when they remembered Zion," and who 
had not lost any of their inborn love for their church and 
people, and who prayed for the time when they might be 
permitted to return to their own land, and whose hearts 
had grown sick because of hope so long deferred — whose 
hearts were wounded when they heard that their brethren 
at home thought them disloyal to their home and their 
God. Then the prophet was sent with this comforting 
message, "I will bring you back, and you shall be to me 
a people." But in the meantime, until the fulfilment of 
the promise, the prophet was directed to say in the name 
of the Lord, "I will be to you a little sanctuary." 

In the sermon this morning I want to point out the 
exceeding kindness of this dispensation, and to show that 
God still delights in the worship of his people in the 
churches which have been organized, and where they may 
meet to sing together, to pray together, to hear the Word 
of God ; and also that the divine wisdom and divine 
goodness has been shown to those who have been deprived 
of such privileges. Nothing that I am going to sav will 
disparage in the slightest degree the feelings we ought 
to cherish of the house of God. These Scriptures bear 



64 SERMONS. 

the immortal impress of the regard which God himself 
has for his church and the worship of his people. Turn 
over the leaves, especially of the writings of this prophet 
and of the Psalmist — the praise of the sanctuary is often 
the burden of their song, and his delight in the worship 
of his people in their churches is their theme. God's 
people respond, "One thing have I desired, and that will 
I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord 
forever" — not literally, not bodily, but always there in 
my interest and my affection — "to behold the beauty of 
the Lord, and to inquire in his tabernacle; for in the 
time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion, in his 
secret place shall he hide me." 

Man is naturally a social being, and God's people 
come together and gratify that social nature, so that we 
find ourselves edified when we sing together, and pray 
together, and when together we engage in all the exercises 
of holy worship. God has made the church the depository 
of his eternal truth ; he has made that long succession 
of men, whom he intends to maintain to the end of time, 
to tell the people of it, to force it upon the mind of the 
people, and above all to uphold the cross, so that his 
prediction shall find fulfilment, "And I, if I be lifted up, 
will draw all men unto me." Yes, we are to have regard 
for the sanctuary, for the institutions of public worship 
in the houses that have been built and consecrated to his 
service, that have been hallowed with memories of com- 
munion with God. in the sacraments that have been ad- 
ministered in them for generations and generations. 
Well, while all this is true, I want to call your attention 
to the divine consideration that is shown in behalf of 
those who have it not in their power to worship in these 
temples built with human hands. If I should ask you 
who wrote the Psalms, these children that are in the 



A LITTLE SANCTUARY. 65 

house this morning, and that I see are listening to the 
sermon — even these children would say, "David wrote 
the Psalms." So he did, so far as the majority of them 
are concerned; but Solomon wrote one of them, Asaph 
wrote several of them, and Moses wrote, perhaps, the 
noblest of them all. For depth and volume of holy 
thought I do not know of any human composition that 
can equal the nintieth Psalm. There is a dignity in it, a 
stately march in it, a grandeur in it, a sanctity in it that 
arrests our attention, and deeply moves us when we con- 
template it — the Psalm that begins with these words, 
"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all genera- 
tions. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever 
thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from 
everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." No doubt it 
was when the tribes were on their wearisome march to the 
land they loved and were longing for, and Moses as- 
cended some eminence, and looked out upon the hosts 
of Israel in their encampment. Pie remembered that for 
years and years theirs was to be a troubled and unsettled 
life, that although they might might be encamped in the 
place called "Elim," where were palm trees and refresh- 
ing springs of water, and though they might want to 
linger longer at a place so refreshing, yet the moment they 
saw the pillar of cloud rise and move onward they had 
immediately to fold their tents and join the march. 
Never could they remain long enough to sow the grain 
with any expectation of reaping the harvest or profiting 
by the result of their own industry. They were entirely 
dependent upon Providence for their daily supply, and 
theirs was a life of perpetual change — wanderers, home- 
less, in a great desert ! It comforted the man of God that 
the Lord after all was the dwelling-place of his people in 
all generations, the spiritual home, and it comforted him 
5 



66 SERMONS. 

that every devout member of every tribe in the uncertain 
life which he lived, the life of perpetual vicissitude, the 
life of constant weariness, the life of continual exposure, 
could find in the presence of God himself the sanctuary 
his soul needed, and that there he could find his true rest 
and true home. And this has been the case with the 
people of God in all generations. "Here we have no 
continuing city." Very few of us live in the house which 
we built with our own hands ; when we recur in memory 
to our earliest home of which we have any recollection, it 
is oftentimes accompanied by an emotion of great sadness 
when we think it is not our home any more, and never 
will be, and that the place where we learned the name of 
"mother," with all the endearments of home life, is now 
in the hands of strangers; and when we go back to it, 
although there may be some agreeable associations 
awakened, oftener they are depressing because of the 
melancholy changes which we see have taken place. God 
is the spiritual home where we are at rest, and where we 
find no change, and that home to us is just the same as 
it was in our childhood. If we have reached middle life, 
we say, "This is my rest now, just as certainly as when 
I sat at my mother's knee." And if we have reached old 
age, our satisfying trust is deeper as the years go on, and 
as we feel the need of the support of the eternal God and 
of the everlasting arms. 

I can imagine how the great soul of Moses was com- 
forted when he saw the thousands and thosands of Israel 
and remembered that for forty years, through that great 
and terrible wilderness, they must follow on their weary 
way, and how it comforted him to say, "Lord, thou hast 
been our dwelling-place." We talk about our earthly 
home ; we can find no true rest in any earthly home — I 
do not mean that we cannot find true love in our earthly 



A LITTLE SANCTUARY. 67 

homes, for we do. But the very love that makes home 
so sweet is the occasion of life's deepest sorrow, because 
we know it is only a question of time when the ties that 
are dearest will be severed, and not only "the mourners 
go about the street," but sit in the house and bewail their 
dead. If the soul would find undisturbed tranquillity, it 
must be in God, who is our dwelling-place — not in the 
temple, but in the great Lord of the temple. 

And then only remember that during the lives of the 
patriarchs there was no such thing as a church in all the 
world. Well, how did they maintain their worship with- 
out the advantages, the things we think necessary ? How ? 
By the fulfilment of the promise. The very first thing 
that Abraham did when God called him from his native 
land was to build an altar, and God was there, "a little 
sanctuary." And when Jacob lay upon the ground and 
saw that glowing ladder reaching the sky, he said, "This 
is the house of God, the gate of heaven." There was no 
house, no gate, but God was there, with all his imparted 
strength and consolation. Jacob was anything but lone- 
some and solitary when troops of angels went up and 
down the glorious ladder, and when God stood at the top 
speaking words of comfort to his servant. That was a 
beautiful illustration of the promise, "I will be to you a 
little sanctuary." 

And then consider how many people there are in the 
land in which we dwell, where there have been Christian 
institutions, Christian privileges, ever since the country 
was settled — how many there are living in communities 
so sparsely settled that there are not enough to form a 
congregation ; and if there were enough people, such is 
the poverty of the people that they cannot support a 
settled minister. Shall they be left without the conso- 
lations of religion? They are left without the house of 



68 SERMONS. 

God ; but only that, for they have the Lord of the house. 
"I will be to you a little sanctuary." 

My sympathy goes out to the thousands and thou- 
sands of people that have no home in all the earth. Per- 
haps you have never thought of the people whose voca- 
tions keep them always on the move. I do not allude only 
to the sailors, whose home is in the forecastle of the ship ; 
not only those, but the homeless ones, and they constitute 
thousands and thousands of our race. How many are 
there who travel up and down the land, whose whole lives 
are lives of perpetual change, without the comforts of 
home during the week, and without the privileges of the 
church on the Sabbath day ! But there are devout be- 
lievers in the truth, there are loyal servants of God in 
these countless thousands, and to them God says, "I will 
be to you a little sanctuary." I am glad to know that the 
sailor in the forecastle of the ship can find, even in that 
place, so narrow and noisome — even there he can find a 
sanctuary where he can meet with his Lord, and hold 
communion with him in prayer. 

Then I call your attention to another great class. Did 
you ever make a calculation of the number of people in 
this land, in these United States, who, by reason of age 
or infirmity are obliged to stay in their homes? What a 
great host of the weary and worn, almost worn-out old 
pilgrims you would find, could you get a glimpse of those 
who have almost reached the termination of their journey, 
and who can only sit in the armchair, ministered to by the 
younger members of the family, only waiting for the 
doors to open and admit them to the rest so long desired ! 
Think of the multitude of the class called "shut-in" — a 
very striking term. I believe there is a newspaper called 
Shut-in, which is intended for those who, by reason of 
long illness or infirmity are unable to leave their homes, 



A LITTLE SANCTUARY. 69 

into whose wearisome lives it brings good cheer. Well, 
I believe that in the chambers where God's people are 
confined, and in the houses where they are shut in by 
reason of recent bereavement, there are some of the most 
beautiful disciples of Christ to be found in the world. I 
think some of the most saintly people in the world are 
those I have been describing. To them God's promise is 
fulfilled. Some of the most eloquent tributes I have ever 
heard in my life to the sweetness of God's sustaining 
grace I have heard in the chambers of sickness, and in 
the homes made desolate by bereavement. It is not in 
the pulpit that you hear the noblest expressions of God's 
unfailing care and love ; it is with those who have had 
experience of God's grace, and appreciate it thoroughly. 
To the "shut-in," from any cause, the promise comes. "I 
will be to you a little sanctuary." 

Then I would have you remember another class. Only 
think of the people who two centuries ago in the land 
from which so many of us, so many of our forefathers 
came; only think of the persecutions they suffered be- 
tween 1670 and 1688; think of the condition in England 
and Scotland, when the perfidious Stuarts were on the 
throne, and until William of Orange came in ; when the 
government tried to impose prelacy upon the people ; 
when the people were forbidden to meet in the sanctuary ; 
when they were driven from their homes, and even abode 
in caves, taking refuge there from the rude troopers of 
Claverhouse. And I know of few things more pathetic 
than the annals of those days, when you read of the 
haunts which the people of God found; when you read 
of the cavern which had a very narrow entrance, beyond 
which was a large chamber, in which they gathered ; a 
cavern on the side of a steep mountain, where the dra- 
goons could not reach them, the entrance concealed by 



70 SERMONS. 

the heather and bracken that grew about it; where the 
people of God could gather on the Sabbath day, and who 
had to sing their hymns in low, subdued voices, where the 
hours were precious to them because attended with so 
much peril; where they could hold communion together, 
where they could sympathize with one another, and where 
they could gather around the consecrated elements, the 
broken bread and wine. They knew not if the day should 
close without disaster. Do you believe that there is any 
cathedral in the world, St. Paul's, or St. Peter's at 
Rome — do you believe that there is any cathedral in the 
world more precious to God than that old cave in the 
mountain where the old Covenanters used to meet? No, 
there was the place where they found their rich and full 
reward ; there God fulfilled his promise when he said to 
them, "I will be to you a little sanctuary." 

And would you not think it strange if I were to tell 
you that the place where God has had the most heartfelt 
praise, the truest sanctuary, was the prison? Only think 
of that scene in a prison when, with their feet made fast 
in the stocks, at midnight Paul and Silas sung a song 
which the prisoners had never heard before, the song of 
glory to the eternal King — a song whose echoes have 
never died away, resounding through the world at this 
moment — when Paul and Silas not only prayed, but 
sang praises to God! And what shall I say of the 
remarkable period in the life of Martin Luther when he 
was taken to the prison in the Thuringen mountains, and 
shut up for a year? It looked like a hard dispensation, 
and yet we see the reason for it. Martin Luther had been 
a man of action, he had been a man of power, he had 
given his testimony before kings, he had been in the 
habit of standing before multitudes, never fearing to let 
his voice be heard. By the hymns which he had com- 



A LITTLE SANCTUARY. 71 

posed — hymns sung in the palaces and cottages of Ger- 
many, stirring hymns — he had moved the hearts of 
millions. And now God, in his providence, had another 
mission for him, and prepared him for another work. It 
was God's will to call him from his former life, and 
imprison him upon the mountain crag, like the eagle he 
was, where he could hold communion with God and ob- 
tain a profounder knowledge of his holy Word ; and note 
what he says, "Called up to God, in my prison I had the 
sweetest experience of what comes from the grace of my 
Lord." And well it was that the opportunity was given 
him to prepare that splendid translation of the Scriptures 
that gave new dignity to the German language — that 
down from the height of that fortress that translated 
Word should come that should be a light, an inspiration 
to the German empire, and to the German people through 
the whole world. Never say that a year has been more 
profitable than that year spent in prison. 

And what shall I say of that immortal dreamer, who 
was arrested for preaching without a license. When he 
was arrested, you remember John Bunyan's account of 
his parting with his family. He took leave of his wife, 
and of his children, one by one, with a great deal of 
fortitude, until he came to kiss his little blind child, the 
youngest of all and the most afflicted, and then the strong 
man broke down for a moment at least, and he said, 
"Poor child, they will buffet thee, they will persecute 
thee ; thou wilt suffer from hunger and cold and thirst." 
Oh ! it was hard parting from that child. And for twelve 
years he languished — no, he did not languish at all ; for 
twelve years he honored and glorified that Bedford jail. 
And did ever man employ his time better than by writing 
that glorious allegory, the most glorious book that was 
ever written, uninspired — a book that has been more 



72 SERMONS. 

translated than any other book, and passed through more 
editions than any other book except the Bible? A book 
that elicited praise from a cold, cynical man like Dean 
Swift; a book that was the theme of admiration on the 
part of Dr. Johnson, whose enthusiasm was not very 
easily awakened ; a book that received the commendation 
of the cold, philosophic Dr. Franklin; a book that 
Macaulay has written about, when he tells us of the age 
of England that produced only two men that deserved to 
be ranked among immortals, and those men were John 
Milton, Who wrote the Fall of Man and the way sin was 
brought into the world; and John Bunyan, who wrote 
about the Christ that brought salvation — the man that 
in a dungeon had a vision of the Delectable Mountains 
and the City of the Great King ! To him the promise was 
fulfilled. Bunyan says, referring to his prison home : 

"Here I have found comfort and instruction. Those 
portions of the Scriptures in which I found little meaning 
now shine upon me. I have a sweet sense of the nearness 
of my Lord in these solitary hours. I have felt the truth 
of what the Apostle said, 'Whom we have not seen, yet 
love.' My body is indeed in this prison ; my soul is free, 
and it ascends by prayer to its source, and I hold com- 
munion with the Eternal, and I rejoice in the coming of 
the time when I shall be satisfied with the divine vision." 

I think the best, most graphic writing we have on 
Christian experience is in Baxter's Saints' Rest. Only 
think of the discipline that he went through during the 
two years he was in prison ! You remember he was 
brought before that infamous Judge Jeffreys, and when 
his counsel prayed that his trial might be postponed for 
two days on account of the absence of witnesses, Jeffreys 
said, "He is one of the two greatest rogues in Great 
Britain." And so that saintly man was committed to 



A LITTLE SANCTUARY. 73 

prison, and for two years he languished there, and what 
is his testimony about it? It was this: "In all places 
where I have been I have found monuments of the divine 
love. Every hour that I have passed has been a time of 
love. Every neighbor, every friend, and even every 
enemy has been made to be, by God's grace, a minister of 
love." And then he said, "Father, bring my soul more 
near to thee, that it may have a purer vision, a clearer 
proof of that love, until I shall be taken to the place where 
I shall know thee perfectly and love thee more." 

I hope I have succeeded in fulfilling the promise that 
I made at the beginning of this discourse, when I said 
that this little text would show so much consideration on 
the part of God for the homeless, and for those who are 
cut off from the privileges of the sanctuary. They have, 
we have, all that we need in him. 

"In darkest shades if he appear, 
My dawning is begun; 
He is my soul's bright morning-star, 
And he my rising sun. 

"The opening heavens round me shine, 

With beams of sacred bliss, 
When Jesus shows his heart is mine, 
And always I am his." 



"I will be to you a little sanctuary.' 1 



VI. 

THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 

"The Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." — 
i Peter i. 23. 

IF, during the excavations which they are now making 
at Herculaneum and Pompeii, there should be found 
a long-lost poem by some old classic bard, or an oration, 
or a philosophical dissertation by some great master of 
thought, how every scholar would desire to possess him- 
self of such a treasure. But I have now open before me 
a book that has been more safely preserved and trans- 
mitted than if it had been encased in lava and just rescued 
from its stony sepulchre after having been buried there 
for ages. And what is more wonderful is the fact that 
while many of the productions of authors who have writ- 
ten a thousand years since these Scriptures were written 
have perished, or have come down to us only in a muti- 
lated and fragmentary form, we have this book in its 
entirety, in its integrity, in its marvellous exactness, with- 
out one solitary ray of its original glory dimmed or 
eclipsed. 

The older portions of this book were written hundreds 
of years before the father of history was born ; they were 
written more than three thousand years ago ; and the very 
last line in the New Testament nearly two thousand 
years ago ! And yet this ancient book is the freshest, the 
most up-to-date of all the books that we have upon the 
globe; there is not another volume that is so modern as 
the Bible. It might have been written in this year of our 



THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 75 

Lord, so far as its adaptedness to human society as it 
now exists is concerned; it might have been composed 
this present year, so far as the instruction it gives as to 
human governments, to all associations that are intended 
for the betterment of the people — to all who occupy 
positions of trust and authority ; to all who are trying to 
live higher and nobler lives, preparing for the life that 
lies beyond this, now so full of trial, darkness and tears ; 
to all who are preparing for the life of eternal rest, and 
light, and gladness. This is the book that we read with 
ever-recurring interest ; it is a book that never loses its 
freshness ; the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth — 
the sweet-scented flowers that grow in your gardens, or 
that you pluck and place in your chambers, how soon the 
leaves fail, how soon the fragrance is gone ! This figure 
of inspiration is selected to represent to us the mutability 
of all things earthly, for the purpose of saying, "The 
Word of God abideth forever!" 

One of the most remarkable and interesting things 
connected with this book is that its authors wrote certain 
things that are so unlike anything that was written by 
any other authors of other lands or of contemporary 
races. In order to make it very plain, I will present to 
you two illustrations, one from the Old and one from the 
New Testament. Look at the contrast between what 
David wrote and what any other man wrote in all the 
world in David's time. Recently you know what interest 
has been revived in the publication of the sacred books, 
as they are called, of the Oriental nations ; and some 
humiliating comparisons were made at our great meeting 
in Chicago for the purpose of comparing our religion 
with the old ethnical faiths. But now the most learned 
men, and those that have acquainted themselves most 
intimately with their contents, tell us that while they 



76 SERMONS. 

contain some very valuable and even precious truths, 
that those truths are so intermingled and buried beneath 
interminable rubbish that it hardly pays for the labor to 
discover and recover those hidden pearls down in muddy 
waters. It is a remarkable thing that there is not one 
chapter in all of those Oriental books that would be fit 
to preach to an intelligent audience in all Christendom. 
And among their sacred hymns there is not one solitary 
stanza that would be fit to lead the devotions of a spirit- 
ually-minded people when they celebrate God's grace on 
his holy day. And yet there was David, a man whose 
early life was spent out in the fields in the occupation of a 
shepherd, who had little communion with anything but 
nature, who went very early into the army, and who held 
three sceptres in his hands before he died — golden-tipped 
rod, the sceptre of royalty ; the sword, the sceptre of the 
warrior, and the harp, the sceptre of the bard. David 
wrote a book that not only gave the world new concep- 
tions of the character of the great God, that not only 
contained glorious prophecies of the reign of the coming 
Christ, but he wrote a book that has been the basis of the 
world's hymnology, the model upon which all our sacred 
songs are constructed — hymns that are valuable and 
sweet just in proportion as they contain something of that 
old rythmic strain. And in those Psalms there is not a 
moan of the sorrowing heart which does not find expres- 
sion, not an aspiration which he does not kindle and lead 
to the object and the right source of all aspirations, and 
among all the compositions of the world there is none 
that has so moved the heart of the world as these Psalms ; 
sometimes tender, and low, and sympathetic, and sweet; 
and yet there is nothing in all the world like the tri- 
umphant strain with which these Psalms close, when 
David calls upon earth and sea and sky, fire and hail and 



THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 77 

stormy wind, and "everything that hath breath," to unite 
in that paean of praise that goes up from all beings that 
think, and live, and love, to the great Creator that 
gives them thought and life. Js it not wonderful that in 
that little fragment of a country, without schools of 
philosophy, without universities, without institutions for 
literary culture of any kind, there should have lived the 
bard who wrote the book through which the most im- 
passioned devotions of God's children in all centuries and 
lands find their sweetest expression? 

Let me take an illustration now from the New Testa- 
ment, as well as this one from the Old. There was a 
country contiguous to Palestine, where oratory uttered its 
noblest strains, where poetry sung its sweetest songs, and 
where philosophy reached the highest heaven of its in- 
vention. In that land there lived a man whose title 
is "The Divine," and although he was not divine in the 
Christian sense of the word, our Christian writers do not 
hesitate to speak of "the divine Plato." Perhaps no man 
ever lived who had greater advantages ; his genius was 
transcendent, his opportunities unsurpassed ; with Socra- 
tes for his teacher, and the most distinguished men of 
the age for his school-mates ; with the best opportunities 
of acquainting himself with the lore of all lands, not only 
by the study of what the most learned had written, but 
by personal association with the great masters of thought 
everywhere. Need we wonder that his works constitute 
the most perfect ideal of Hellenic genius, and are now 
counted among the most precious treasures of the intel- 
lectual world? And yet what contribution did he make 
to the life of the spiritual world? What regenerating 
effect did his teachings have on his own age, and on those 
to whom they were immediately addressed? "Plato, thou 
reasonest well," but how would you like to hear a Chris- 



7$ SERMONS. 

tian minister speak as doubtfully about the immortality 
of the soul as Plato did in his noble argument on that 
theme ? 

I turn now again to that other little country that lay 
contiguous to Greece — to Palestine — and there, too, I 
find a man who had native genius, and some fine oppor- 
tunities, educated as he was by one of the most distin- 
guished teachers of the time ; somewhat acquainted with 
the general literature of the world, and in the enjoyment 
of some special advantages from his Jewish training and 
Roman citizenship. Let us glance at those fourteen little 
letters that Paul wrote — they would only make a chapter 
in one of Plato's volumes, so far as bulk is concerned. 
And yet, while to-day there is not a pulpit in the world 
that takes one saying of Plato for a text, and it may be 
I am the only minister on this continent that is even 
talking about him to-day; there are thousands of men 
who are preaching from texts taken out of these fourteen 
epistles. This is very interesting simply as a matter of 
comparison. Here was a man that did not have one tithe 
of the advantages of the illustrious Plato, who wrote a 
few little treatises that have actually shaped the theologies 
of the world, and in all the great controversies among 
ecclesiastics the authority of Paul is invoked as the great 
arbiter beyond whose decisions there is no appeal! The 
Agrippas and Pilates of the first century are now only so 
many phantoms, the Caesars are but shades; but Paul 
still walks among the regnant men of the world, and 
sways a sceptre in Christendom second in influence only 
to that of his divine Lord. 

These are some of the extraordinary things with 
regard to this Word, of which the Apostle says it "liveth." 
If a thing lives and abides forever, it must have in it some 
internal, indestructible elements. There is a rough 



THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 79 

phrase, a sort of jargon phrase, of the metaphysicians of 
the day — "the survival of the fittest" — a very cruel 
phrase as it is often applied, when it means that the strong 
should finally trample out the weak, and that might 
makes right. But it has another meaning, and a very 
noble one: some things live because they ought to sur- 
vive; there are some things that keep on living because 
men must have them and preserve them if they would 
secure their highest welfare; and when we apply this 
principle to the Bible, we assert that it survives because 
it is fit to survive, and it is bound to survive, because it 
contains those truths which are essential to humanity — 
indispensable to humanity — because it bequeaths to us 
those institutions that give to the world its brightness, its 
beauty, its moral and spiritual elevation — those institu- 
tions that are such benedictions to all who avail them- 
selves of them that no man who has had an experience 
of their value is willing to allow them to pass into desue- 
tude. The Bible contains within itself the essential ele- 
ments of its own immortality. 

I can occupy very well what remains to me of my time 
in pointing out some of these indispensable and inde- 
structible elements which make the Bible the book the 
world most needs, and can never dispense with. 

First, it satisfies what is oftentimes an unconscious 
longing of our humanity, but what is a universal longing 
of that humanity, and that is, the longing for a God that 
man can depend upon with unwavering confidence; the 
longing for a God in whose hands our breath is, and who 
is to be our final Judge, and yet at the same time who is 
our loving and tender Father? Perhaps you say that 
this is not a universal longing — this desire for God. 
Perhaps you say, when David tells us that the human 
heart thirsts for God, for the living God, it is an exag- 



80 SERMONS. 

geration. It was not an exaggeration; so far from it, 
it is an inadequate phrase to express the whole truth. It 
is often an unconscious longing, but it is universal, and 
I will give you the demonstration. There may be atheists 
in the world, but there is not a single atheistic community 
in the world; and we never can forget that impressive 
statement that old Plutarch made when he said there were 
cities without walls, without art, without literature; but 
no city without temples and places where God could be 
worshipped ! If you want an argument, I have not time 
to make it ; if you want a proof, it is this : Throughout 
all the world some deity is worshipped; even the varied 
forms of polytheism that infest heathen nations, and have 
infested them from the beginning, furnish proof of this 
universal need of a God ; and if men do not know the 
living and true God, they invent a god, because a god 
they must have. In the lands that were contiguous to the 
country in which the Bible was written, among the con- 
temporaries of David, there was a great deal written 
about gods and goddesses ; but only contrast the gods 
that mythology painted, and that poets feigned, with the 
living and true God that these Scriptures reveal ! When 
David said that his heart cried out for a God that was 
alive, he represented the only religion that worshipped a 
living God ; all the gods of the heathen were imaginary 
beings; there was Olympus visible enough, but no Jove 
ever stood revealed upon it. It was the living God that 
David cried out for, and a God that cared for the world 
of creatures that he had formed — a God that was very 
high, but not so high that he could not see what was on 
his footstool; a God that was very great, but not too 
great to be concerned for his children. David was two 
thousand years in advance of some scientific men of our 
time, who say that the creation did not have a Creator; 



THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 81 

or, if it had, he was a Creator who, having made the 
worlds, left them to the control of inexorable law. That 
was not the kind of a God that David longed for, or that 
these Scriptures reveal — a great dumb, blind, cosmical 
God, without intelligence, without consciousness, without 
heart; but the God that these Scriptures reveal, and the 
God that humanity craves, is a God "infinite, eternal, and 
unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, jus- 
tice, goodness and truth" — a God who recognizes the 
creatures redeemed by the blood of his Son as entitled to 
become members of his own family, the adopted children 
of his love. That is the God the Bible reveals to us ; and 
one reason why the Bible is ever dear, and must always 
be a precious possession which the world cannot surren- 
der, is the fact that it reveals to us just such a God as 
that. 

And not only does it give us this great and necessary 
revelation, but it provides for another universal want of 
our humanity. If I were to say that there is a universal 
sense of sinfulness in the human race, would you give me 
your immediate assent ? If not, let me make a suggestion, 
that there is a consciousness in the human soul of some- 
thing wrong between the creature and the Creator, is 
evident from the fact that through the entire world, down 
to a certain period, the worship of sacrifices everywhere 
prevailed. If this universal consciousness of sinfulness 
did not exist, why was it that not only among the bar- 
barous, but among the most civilized and cultivated races, 
sacrifices were everywhere offered. Even kings felt it 
honorable to put on the sacerdotal robes and minister at 
the altar. Why was it that men brought lambs and 
bullocks and offered them in sacrifice? It was a confes- 
sion that they needed some mediatory influence, some- 
thing with which to appease the offended deity. And then 
6 



■MOM 



82 SERMONS. 

why was it that even in the most cultivated of all the 
nations of antiquity the time came when men were 
brought to the conclusion that an irrational creature was 
not quite sufficient for the necessity ; that a human being 
must be sacrificed for human guilt? And why was it 
that, when once the lot fell upon the king, the whole 
country rejoiced, and said, "Now we have found the 
sacrifice worthy to present to God, one in whom the 
majesty of the nation is settled and centred, a representa- 
tive of all that is greatest and best, but now devoted to 
death for our redemption ? Nothing but the conviction of 
universal sinfulness could have justified such an offering 
to avert the dreaded retribution. 

All at once the sacrifices that were universal through- 
out the world came to an end. This is a great fact in 
human history — all sacrifices ceased, and for eighteen 
hundred years there has not been a sacrifice in a single 
civilized land in Christendom; and why? Because One 
came into the world to proclaim himself as the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world; God clothing 
himself in human flesh; because Deity could not suffer 
and die, and because Deity glorified thus (not the glory 
of ancient Greece or Rome) must suffer and die for 
human men. Both man the sinner, and God the offended 
Sovereign could be represented in the person of Im- 
manuel, God with us, God for us; our substitute, our 
atoning sacrifice. 

And now when one perturbed in consequence of con- 
scious guilt says, "What must I do, how can I make my 
peace with God ?" the invitation comes to that inquirer to 
put his trust in this unique and august personage, who 
came into the world to represent both parties, the offended 
Deity and the offending sinner, and who offered himself 
a sacrifice for man's transgression. I do not know a 



THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 83 

more interesting moment in the life of any man than when 
he makes the discovery that he is a sinner, inexcusable 
and justly condemned, because he has trampled not only 
upon law, but upon love ; when, with a sense of impend- 
ing peril and coming retribution, he begins to cast about 
to find out how he can escape the position in which he 
suddenly finds himself. He turns and turns, but finds no 
light ; he listens and listens, but hears no voice ; he looks 
and looks, but sees no refuge, and then all at once he sees 
the light streaming from Calvary, and hears the voice 
that mercy utters from the cross; hears the assurance 
that God gave his "only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believes on him should not perish, but have eternal life." 
And if the man asks, "How can my simple belief be 
sufficient, when I remember how true and holy God is; 
when I remember the demands of justice; how can he 
keep his word and be a forgiving God ; how can he grant 
amnesty to one that deserves nothing but condemnation 
and wrath? What is the answer? "Justice has been 
satisfied; its extremest demand has been met; the God- 
man has been made, in the impressive language of Scrip- 
ture, 'a curse for us,' — the most terrible word that can 
be employed — made a curse for us ; wounded for our 
transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, suffered the 
penalty of human guilt, until justice itself upon the throne 
rises up and puts its great arms around mercy with a kiss 
of eternal love and reconciliation." And if the man, still 
hesitating, says, "I see what provision has been made, but 
how can I obtain an immediate personal interest in this 
great atonement ?" the answer comes — its very sim- 
plicity makes men doubt — "Only believe." "Let him 
that is athirst come. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come, 
and whosoever will, let him come and take of the water 
of life freely." Purchased at the infinite cost of the blood 



84 SERMONS. 

of Christ, but free to you ! And when the man hears that 
assurance, when he learns that everything has been done 
for him, leaving him nothing to do but trust in what has 
been done, then with unhesitating confidence he may 
adopt the words of the greatest Oriental scholar America 
ever produced, who said on his death-bed that all his the- 
ology was reduced to this : 

" Just as I am, without one plea 
But that thy blood was shed for me, 
And that thou bidst me come to thee, 
O Lamb of God, I come !" 

The man that does that is saved. Oh ! yes, the word 
must be an ever-living, ever-welcome word that makes 
that provision for the sin-sick soul. 

That point being settled, another consideration arises. 
We live in a world of mutation, of sudden and deplorable 
vicissitudes. How bright and beautiful the sky was yes- 
terday ; who would have thought that to-day would begin 
in cloud and darkness and storm! Well, this is so in 
human life — it is just a picture and a pattern of our own 
experience. Our troubles come so suddenly, ofttimes 
from such unexpected quarters, and when they do come, 
they are sometimes hard to bear. In a world that is so 
full of disappointment and sorrow, the human heart has 
another great craving — it cries out for something to 
comfort it. When one of those bereavements come that 
make all the world a blank, a dreary blank, stripped of 
all that makes life worth living, if any one attempts to 
assuage such anguish with the common places of the 
world's consolations, the sufferer cries out, "Have pity, 
O my friend, do anything but try to sustain me by such 
inanities — the hand of God has touched me !" When 
called to part with that which made life most desirable 



THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 85 

and dear, when we stand beside the crudest pit ever 
opened to mortal eyes — an open grave ; when we hear 
the clods tumbling down upon the coffin-lid, the heart 
demands something more than all the sympathy that 
earth can offer. Then this gospel comes to comfort the 
mourner, to bind up the broken-hearted ! I have seen a 
mother unmurmuringly take leave of four children, with 
a calm assurance that the Lord would take care even of 
them, so sure was she that the Shepherd who had taken 
care of her would surely take care of her little lambs ! I 
saw a father one day rise up in one of our hospitals 
during the terrible days that we never can forget, as he 
was kneeling by the cot of a son mortally wounded in 
battle ; the mother on the other side of the cot of her boy, 
delirious from his wound, unable to recognize her, run- 
ning her hand over his face, giving him tender caresses, 
and saying, "Oh ! if you would only look at me, only 
speak to me, my darling, I could part with you, by son." 
Even while she thus plead with him, the boy died, and the 
old father rose — I can see him now just as distinctly as I 
see you, with his white hair falling over his shoulders ; 
the old father rose, straightened himself, and said, "The 
Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away" — and then he 
stopped ! I could almost see the struggle that was going 
on in that man's heart between faith and grief ; but pres- 
ently, with a clear voice he added, "Blessed be the name 
of the Lord!" If you know of any other book that con- 
tains what can comfort a bereaved father and mother 
like that, I should like you to show me where it is to be 
found ! 

These are some of the reasons why the Bible is bound 
to live. It is the survival of the fittest: the survival of 
what is divinely fittest; it has in it those things that we 
cannot dispense with — the church, for instance; we 



86 SERMONS. 

must have a place where we can come together, and bless 
God, and get the benefit of the sacraments that remind us 
of our Saviour's dying love. And then out of the church 
comes the philanthropies that meet the needs of society, 
the associations and benevolent agencies for the ameliora- 
tion of want and woe. We cling to the book that gives 
birth and inspiration to these things because the world 
cannot do without them. Then, too, we must have the 
Sabbath, with its blessed rest; the Sabbath, which sur- 
vives because it is the fittest day of all the days to sur- 
vive; because the human body physically needs rest, be- 
cause the human mind needs rest, because the human 
soul needs the opportunity of undisturbed repose and 
communion with God. 

And, lastly, we cling to this Bible because we know 
that we are pilgrims and strangers, as all our fathers 
were, and we would find the rest into which they have 
entered, the home in which they dwell. And the Bible 
is the only book that assures us of such a home. "In my 
Father's house are many mansions ; I go to prepare a 
place for you" — and such is Christ's love to his people 
that he cannot bear to be separated from them forever — 
and so he adds, "I will come again and receive you unto 
myself, that where I am there ye may be also." 

Therefore, do you wonder that the Apostle should set 
this gospel far above everything? What was the last 
verse of the hymn that we sung? 

" Should all the forms that men devise 
. Assault my soul with treacherous art, 
I'll call them vanity and lies, 

And bind this gospel to my heart." 



VII. 

THE SILENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 

''And many other signs truly Jesus did in the presence of his 
disciples, which are not written in this book." — John xx. 30. 

THERE is something exceedingly impressive in the 
silences of the Scriptures, as well as in the utter- 
ances of the Scriptures. We scarcely know which to 
wonder at the most ; at what the Scriptures reveal, or at 
what the Scriptures conceal. Inasmuch as all Scripture 
is given by inspiration of God, it is perfectly plain that 
there is no department of human knowledge about which 
men have any curiosity or feel any interest which these 
Scriptures could not have cast light upon. If it had so 
pleased God, they could have foretold all the wonderful 
discoveries of modern science, all that subordination of 
the great forces of Nature to the use and convenience of 
man that constitutes the marvel of the century in which 
we live. There is no truth in science upon which inspira- 
tion might not have cast an all-revealing light ; and there 
is no invention of human genius that inspiration might 
not have anticipated and revealed. And not only that, if 
God had so willed it, it would have been easy to give an 
explanation in his Word of those great insoluble problems 
that rack the intellects of men, and oftentimes have 
clouded the faith of men. If God had been pleased, he 
could have told us something about the origin of evil — 
that one problem that has baffled the researches of the 
human race. I do not know whether the wings of this 
church, if converted into a library, would hold the books 



88 SERMONS. 

that have been written in discussion of that recondite and 
most mysterious of all the subjects that have occupied hu- 
man attention : how sin came into the world, and why 
God, the omnipotent and the all-benevolent, should have 
permitted the entrance of moral evil ! There is not a soli- 
tary syllable on that subject in all revelation. And then 
again, when we think of what conflicts and controversies 
there have been in the schools theological in the endeavor 
to reconcile divine sovereignty and human agency, free 
agency — two truths that seem to be one as distinctly 
revealed as the other, and yet one apparently incom- 
patible and irreconcilable with the other. These two 
truths of human agency and divine sovereignty rise up 
like parallel pillars until they get out of sight. Beyond 
our sight I have no doubt they arch and meet somewhere 
in the infinite space, and God knows how to reconcile 
them at last ; but he does not reveal the method to human 
comprehension. 

And then again, only think of the small information, 
the meagre information, it has pleased God to give us 
about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, 
in consequence of want of information on this subject, 
you will find those that look for the personal advent of 
Christ upon the earth, that believe he will come again, 
even as he came once in the flesh, and reconcile all the 
antagonisms of society and dissipate all the miseries that 
afflict the world. The second coming of Christ! What 
that is precisely, and how he is to come, and how the new 
heavens and the new earth are to be organized, is some- 
thing about which the Scriptures are profoundly silent: 
they only give us hints that these things will be — but 
how they will be accomplished, not a syllable of revela- 
tion! 

And we wonder that so little is told us about the 



THE SILENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 89 

future life. That is a great mystery. There is a great 
deal told us about this present life, and yet we know how 
insignificant this present life is, compared with that future 
life : insignificant because of its transitoriness — we take 
a few breaths, a few turns through the world; we form 
a few associations, we gather into families, and we enter 
into certain lines of business ; and by the time we have 
gotten well started and have begun to get a little experi- 
ence, the flood comes, and we are carried away ! "In the 
morning we are like the grass that groweth up ; in the 
morning it flourisheth and groweth up ; but in the even- 
ing we are cut down and wither." And yet a great deal 
is told us about the present life, and very little about the 
future life. We are told that there is a future life, and 
that it will consist of two great departments : the heaven 
for the good, and the world of woe for the finally im- 
penitent. How little we know about the method of 
intercourse and association among souls until the resur- 
rection shall come : how one spirit will recognize another ; 
how little we are told about the occupations of heaven, 
and the employments that shall fill up the eternity of the 
redeemed ! Inasmuch as these employments are to be 
perpetual and never come to any end, we would think, 
according to our method of reasoning, that upon such 
subjects a great deal would be revealed — that much 
would be told us with regard to its associations, its 
employments, its holy pleasures. Yes, the silence of 
Scripture is very wonderful, as well as the revelations of 
Scripture. 

"Many other signs did Jesus in the presence of his 
disciples, which are not written in this book." And what 
is true of the signs is true of everything else relating to 
the life of Christ. I take the word "signs" here as a word 
that stands for all the manifestations of Christ — for 



90 SERMONS. 

what he said, and did, and was, so far as he manifested 
himself to the eyes of men ; and it is true of all of these, 
the great majority were not written in the book — not 
the Gospel of John, not anywhere in the New Testament, 
and not recorded in any book by any author. With 
regard to the miracles of our Lord, we have on record a 
few. But of those miracles which are recorded there are 
only enough to give us illustrations of the great doctrines 
of grace. There is not a miracle among all the miracles 
of Christ that was intended to be a mere exhibition of 
omnipotent power, they all had a beneficent purpose. 
And we may judge of the great number of the unrecorded 
miracles of Christ when I read from the fourth chapter 
of the Gospel of Matthew, "And Jesus went about all 
Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the 
gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness 
and all manner of disease among the people; and they 
brought unto him all sick people that were taken with 
divers diseases and torments, and those that were pos- 
sessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and 
those that had the palsy; and he healed them." Then 
we learn that among the miracles that Christ wrought, 
only a few were selected and put upon record; and we 
also learn that of the discourses and sermons that Christ 
preached only a few of them were preserved. We are 
told in the passage I just read that Christ preached in 
all the synagogues, while we have only an account of his 
sermon in one synagogue — when he went into the syna- 
gogue on the Sabbath day, and was handed the word of 
Esaias, and when he stood up and read, and when he 
applied the passage to himself, and said, "The Spirit of 
God is upon me; and this day this scripture is fulfilled 
in your ears." And they all wondered! If Christ went 
through all the villages and synagogues teaching and 



THE SILENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 91 

preaching, what a small proportion of all his utterances 
have we upon record ! We have the Sermon on the 
Mount; we have the long discourse that he delivered to 
his disciples as recorded in the fourteenth chapter of this 
Gospel of St. John; and then we have a few extracts 
from the discourses that Christ delivered, and a few con- 
versations that he held, and that is all. Truly there were 
many things which were not written in this book! 

And the silence oftentimes occurs just where we 
would expect revelation ; the silences occur just where 
our curiosity is oftentimes deep, and just where we crave 
information. For instance, we are told of the prodigies 
that attended the birth of our Saviour. Glittering in the 
heavens was a guiding star. The birth was very lowly; 
but I should like to know over what other prince did a 
new star glitter in the sky? The wise men in the East 
were attracted from their distant homes, and came to his 
cradle to offer their homage. And then we would suppose 
that after events so astounding as those, that wise men 
would come from all lands, that people of all classes and 
callings would flock to the cradle of the infant Christ ; 
that there would not be a day in the year in which men — 
not only from the East, but from the North and the South 
and the West — would go to the place where Jesus was 
growing up in his home; and yet there is a perfect 
silence ; a hush falls upon the history from the time of the 
birth to the time when his parents took him at twelve 
years of age with them on their journey to Jerusalem ; 
and there we have a brief account of his interview with 
the learned men he encountered in the temple, and how 
astonishing were the questions he asked and answered ; 
and then the most extraordinary silence of all occurs, and 
the more we think about it the more our wonder grows, 
that for eighteen years — oh ! what a large section that 



92 SERMONS. 

is in the human life ; for eighteen years we hear no more 
of Christ. Eighteen years ! And what makes us wonder 
most is when we remember the errand upon which Christ 
came into the world, that he should have attained the age 
of thirty years before he should have entered upon the 
work that he came to accomplish ; when we remember 
that Christ was the "Desire of all Nations," that the 
world for four thousand years had been waiting for him ; 
when we remember that he was the theme of all prophecy, 
that all the types and ceremonies of the Old Testament 
worship centred upon him, and were meaningless without 
him ; when we recollect that he came to redeem the world, 
and that he saw how this whole creation groaned and 
travailed in pain because of the curse that had smitten it ; 
that during these awful throes through which the guilty 
world was passing, the miseries that were making the 
human race wretched during those years, Christ should 
have been silent! Yes, the silences of Scripture, the 
things that are not written, are the things that fill us with 
amazement. 

Again, when we remember that one-half of the Chris- 
tian world worships Mary, I have often wondered that 
so little is said of the parents of Christ after his birth. 
We have one view of his mother, standing at the foot of 
the cross, when her dying Son committed her to the cus- 
tody and love of his disciple. Then she disappears. 

Stranger still, not a word is said about the history of 
his reputed father, and no one knows where Joseph lived 
or what his history was, or where he died, or anything 
about him. He appears in connection, and this connection 
was wonderful and glorious for a while; and then he 
goes — like a torch quenched — he goes out into oblivion 
and total darkness. 

The same thing is true with regard to his apostles. 



THE SILENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 93 

Now I am entering upon another of the extraordinary 
fields that interest us when we begin to investigate them ; 
and that is how strange it is that when our Lord, out of 
the whole world from which he had the power to select, 
selected twelve men to be his apostles and to be the 
foundation upon which his kingdom was to be built, he 
being the chief cornerstone, that only six of them received 
any mention, except in the catalogues that give their 
names ! You would think that something would be said 
about six of the most illustrious men of the world — illus- 
trious they were; so far as the task which was assigned 
them was concerned, so far as the place they occupied in 
the establishment of the kingdom of Christ was con- 
cerned, they were among the illustrious men of the world ; 
and yet who knows anything about them? We have a 
catalogue in the Acts of the Apostles where the names of 
the twelve occur, and then six of them pass into absolute 
obscurity; and of the others, their histories break off just 
exactly where we want them to continue, and that is 
another mystery and marvel. Take, for example, the 
history of Simon Peter. Why, the first chapters of the 
Acts of the Apostles are absolutely resplendent with the 
work and with the sermons of that great champion of 
the truth. Then all at once he is dismissed, and you 
never hear of Peter any more until you find him in the 
Council Hall at Jerusalem, and that is the last favorable 
mention we have of him. Who would not like to know 
the whole biography of that wonderful man? And who 
would not like to know whether he was ever in the city 
of Rome or not? You know that is one of the great 
controversial questions among ecclesiastics, whether he 
was ever in the city of Rome or not. We would have been 
very glad to have had some more chapters added to that 
history: whether he ever went to Rome; and if he did, 



94 SERMONS. 

whether any peculiar honors were heaped upon him that 
distinguished him from the rest. And we would like to 
know where and how Peter died. There was another 
disciple that was often mentioned with Peter, and that 
was James. Did you ever notice what a singular thing 
it is — James was killed off in a parenthesis ! McLaren 
says that James was killed off in a parenthesis — that is 
to say, the narrative was going on, and simply says, "And 
he killed James with the sword." That is the beginning 
and the end of that martyrdom. And what shall I say of 
John? Well, we have the tradition that he attained to 
old age ; that he went to live in the city of Ephesus ; and 
we have some beautiful traditions with regard to him, and 
feel that the concluding history of the disciple that Jesus 
loved would have been most interesting. We would like 
to have had some details of the dying exercises of that 
disciple — the only one that attained to old age ; what 
was his testimony with regard to the love and faithfulness 
of Christ, what comfort was there in the dying hours of 
the holy man of God? But we have no record of the 
kind. And then take one more illustration, and that is 
the case of the Apostle Paul. When Peter disappears, 
suddenly dismissed without any explanation of his going, 
Paul comes to the front, and then we have chapter after 
chapter full of information, full of the most delightful 
detail with regard to the labors and success of that great 
man, until we come to an account of his imprisonment in 
the city of Rome ; and, oh ! if we only knew as much 
about Paul's last sayings as we know about the sayings 
of hundreds of men that have been imprisoned for con- 
science' sake, and have been brought out to taste a mar- 
tyr's death before they wear a martyr's crown ! How we 
would have revelled if we could only know what Paul 
felt and said ! And now, just as we are anxious to know 



THE SILENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 95 

what comes next, there is no next, and the history ends 
without any end. 

And what do we learn from these things; what are 
the lessons taught us? I think, with regard to the soli- 
tude in which Christ lived for so long a time, a great 
lesson is taught us, and that is that the preachers of the 
Word and the men that are training for the holy office 
ought to have a long time for study ; that the men who 
are to be the spiritual guides of their fellow-men and the 
teachers of the church ought to be men who take the 
years of toil that qualify them to the right discharge of 
their office — not having our pulpits filled with novices 
and itinerant evangelists that carry about fragments of 
the truth, that oftentimes lack judgment and discretion 
with their zeal, and who oftentimes only leave the condi- 
tion of the churches in which they labor more unhappy 
and more fruitless than they found them. We are taught 
the lesson that sometimes patience is the greatest virtue 
that can be exercised — not to anticipate, but to wait 
God's time, until he pleases to call us into his service; 
and I know of nothing that is more impressive than the 
calmness of Christ during those years of preparation. 
They were not lost years, for when he did come forth he 
came forth to speak those words which are spirit and 
which are life to the souls of men, as he will speak those 
final words which will decide the destinies of men for 
ever and ever. 

We learn something else from these silences of Scrip- 
ture : that it was never the intention of revelation to give 
us the full biography of any man. Why? Because no 
man's history and no man's doings are of any account 
except as they stand related to Christ ; and, therefore, 
instead of filling up the pages of Scripture with those 
events which only gratify curiosity, the only things that 



96 SERMONS. 

are mentioned about the men are things that have some 
bearing upon Christ, and it is because of the man's rela- 
tion to Christ that he has any mention at all. And the 
object of the books of Scripture is never to magnify the 
writer of the book; he has one theme, and self is hidden 
behind the glory of the topic which he has to present. 
And that is particularly true of this Gospel of St. John, 
for he does not mention those things that the other 
gospels mention with regard to himself that might reflect 
honor upon him — he is silent about his own deeds and 
his relation to Christ, and leaves that to the pens of 
others. 

But after all, the great reason for the silence of Scrip- 
ture is that the world may listen to one voice, the only 
voice, the one saving voice that sounds from heaven, the 
one voice that is entitled to the reverence of all that hear : 
men vanish from the scene, but Christ remains — the 
central figure to occupy the mind and heart, as well as 
the eye and the ear of the world. 

And there is one thing that we need not fear and need 
not feel unhappy over, and that is that so many of the 
great workers in connection with Christ should be sum- 
marily dismissed, that they should be thrust aside like 
actors that have performed their parts, and disappear as 
if they had been dropped down through a trap-door on 
the stage, and never make another entry. It looks to us 
sometimes hard that no mention should be made of the 
faithful men that toiled on and toiled to the end without 
the world ever having any information of their successes 
and their recompense. But I will tell you where the com- 
pensation comes in. Did I say one-half of the apostles 
received no mention after the final catalogue of their 
names is presented? I would like to know what differ- 
ence it makes? Suppose their names had all been con- 



THE SILENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 97 

nected with immortal histories ; suppose their names had 
been connected with their career of service and useful- 
ness to the time of their death? What difference would 
it have made ? After all, any real reward would not have 
been in such recompense. I do not know of anything that 
human hearts have craved for that is so worthless as 
fame. Nothing! And there is nothing so unsubstantial, 
either. The world has a short memory, and the greatest 
and the best of men that live in it are soon forgotten. 
They go into the land of silence, and the world gets silent 
about them. What difference does it make? What is the 
value of all the applause that the world may lavish upon 
them? This music does not penetrate the dull, cold ear 
of death ; this applause of the world never stirs any sweet 
emotions in the heart after it is chill and still in the coffin ! 
No, God does not intend that the recompense of his chil- 
dren shall come in the shape of earthly recognition and 
honor. And if you want the demonstration of it, here it 
is. I said the history of the apostles was dropped sud- 
denly. Yes, and just as abruptly it is resumed again — 
just as abruptly it is taken up again, and what do we 
learn? We learn in the description that is given of the 
city of God, the New Jerusalem, that recorded in the 
foundation of those celestial walls are the names of the 
twelve apostles of the Lord. The tombs that are built on 
earth over the graves of eminent men yield by and by to 
the touch of Time, the great destroyer, even the most 
solid and enduring structures that ever are reared; the 
epitaphs by and by are obliterated by the work of the 
elements and the corroding hand of Time. But there, 
upon those imperishable foundations of the Eternal City 
stand, in letters of light ineffaceable, the names of all the 
apostles, the humblest of them and the most obscure, as 
well as the most illustrious. So God gives the final 
7 



98 SERMONS. 

recompense. Therefore, beloved friends, let us not be so 
much concerned about the position we occupy in the 
church of God as about this point : whether we are filling 
the situation in which God's providence has placed us to 
the very best of our ability. The perfection of the circle 
does not consist in its size ; it consists in its roundness, 
and the ring upon your little finger may be as perfect a 
circle as that which is described by the revolution of any 
of the orbs that gravitation wheels through the infinite 
space. The great question is how we are discharging 
the duties of the sphere in which we are placed, whether 
it be conspicuous or humble; and I think it ought to 
cheer a very large proportion of the people of God to 
know that the smallest service sincerely rendered out of 
love to Christ is just as much a matter of his regard and 
appreciation as the most splendid service that the greatest 
champion of the truth ever performed. Oh! thank God 
that the saying is recorded that "a cup of cold water in 
the name of a disciple shall not lose its reward. 5 ' When 
they were building the temple at Jerusalem there were 
men cutting cedar trees away up on the seacoast, and 
there were others in what now forms the subterranean 
chambers beneath the city of Jerusalem quarrying stone ; 
and by and by the day came when the temple was com- 
pleted, and there were some men that put pinnacles upon 
it and gilded those pinnacles ; but the men that laid the 
first stone in the foundation, and Hiram's wood-cutter in 
the forest, had their part in the building of the temple as 
much as the man that stood in the portico at last, and 
announced its completion and turned it over to the church. 
It does not matter in what part of the structure we work, 
the question is, "Have we turned our advantages to the 
best account, and are we filling the sphere, great or small, 
with a sincere desire to do all that in us lies to advance 



THE SILENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 99 

the kingdom of the Master and the welfare of those to 
whom he has bound us and made the objects of our care 
and love?" That is the question. Therefore, we can 
afford to be humble; we can afford to take our place 
among the unrecognized, among those who are not ob- 
served ; because the time of final recompense will come ; 
the time will come when our Lord, sitting upon the throne 
of his glory, when all men are gathered before him, will 
say, "I was sick and in prison and ye visited me and 
ministered unto me ; I was a stranger, and ye cared for 
me ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink." And the 
surprised auditor will say, "Lord, we would have been 
very glad to have done this, but we never did it. We did 
not even live during the century in which thou didst need 
these ministering services on the part of those that loved 
thee." And he will say, "Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto the least of these my children, my needy ones, my 
suffering ones, ye have done it unto me. Enter thou into 
the joy of thy Lord." 



LofC. 



VIII. 

"BUT THESE ARE WRITTEN." 

"And many other signs did Jesus in the presence of his disci- 
ples, which are not written in this book. But these are written 
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that 
believing ye might have life through his name." — John xx. 31. 

I* N my discourse this morning I stated that all that Jesus 
•*■ did and all that Jesus said was not recorded by either 
or by all of the evangelists ; that there were many mira- 
cles which he wrought of which they took no note ; many 
conversations and discourses which he delivered of which 
they made no record ; that there were a multitude of 
great unsolved problems upon which the Bible did not 
cast one solitary ray of light ; that nearly all the biogra- 
phies of Scripture were fragmentary, and ofttimes broke 
off just at the point where we most wished to have the 
continuation; and that these things showed that the ob- 
ject of Scripture was not to teach us science, and not to 
gratify our curiosity, and not to enable us to indulge in 
vain speculation; but to concentrate our minds and our 
hearts upon the one great object, and that it is the purpose 
of these Scriptures to disclose Christ as the subject of 
our faith, the object of our perpetual allegiance in this 
life, and the theme of our praise in the life to come. 
Many of the things, therefore, about which we would 
desire to have more information are not recorded, but the 
text says, "These things are written. " Whatever has 
been put upon record has been put there that we may 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that 



"BUT THESE ARE WRITTEN." 101 

believing we might have life through his name. We 
learn, therefore, that everything that is essential to our 
interest, to our welfare, has been recorded; that every- 
thing that makes the way of salvation plain has been 
written, and that the method by which we may obtain a 
personal interest in that salvation has been disclosed to 
us, and that all those things that are essential to the im- 
perishable interest of human souls have been recorded by 
holy men who wrote as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost. 

Even we, with our limited comprehension of things, 
can see how the divine wisdom shines in this order that 
all the essential truths which concern human salvation 
should have been written. That which is written remains ; 
it remains unchanged ; it is in such a form that it can be 
transmitted, from age to age, through all the centuries 
of time. But if everything that our Lord did in the way 
of wonderful works ; if all that our Lord spoke in his 
conversations with his friends and in the public discourses 
which he delivered, if these had all been recorded, if we 
had had a complete biography of all the illustrious men 
whose names are mentioned in the Scriptures, and whose 
histories are oftentimes very abruptly broken off just at 
the point where we have an intense desire to know what 
comes next — if all these things had been recorded, then 
the Bible would not have been the convenient book which 
its great author designed it to be: the book which has 
been transmitted to us in the form that is so easy for us 
to profitably use; the book which we can have in our 
houses ; the book which the mother can put in the satchel 
of her boy when he is leaving home to engage in some 
new occupation, it may be in some distant part of the 
country ; the book that the sick man, lying upon his bed, 
can still hold in his hand and peruse ; the book which can 



102 SERMONS. 

be so easily distributed in consequence of its size; the 
book so easy of translation, and so easy of distribution. 
It is well, therefore, inasmuch as this book is intended to 
be circulated through all lands, and become the property 
of all that can read, and can learn to read, and wish to 
learn the divine will, and the divine wisdom shines in the 
fact that we get the book in such form that all these 
things are possible and practicable. 

Then another thing is true with regard to what is 
written. What is put upon record cannot be changed. 
It can be handed down to coming generations. What a 
wonderful saying that was of one of the wisest of the 
English authors, when he said that if ships convey the 
commodities of one country to another, so that people 
living in one land can be supplied with what is produced 
in another land, and then can send back commodities 
which that land does not possess, how much more can we 
wonder at books, which are the ships which sail down 
through the centuries, and bear to men the noblest 
thoughts of the best thinkers that have lived, and whose 
office it has been to instruct mankind. This is pre- 
eminently true of the Bible. It is because what God 
revealed to men has been written that we have the only 
authentic history of the very earliest periods of the life 
of the world in which we live. It is because of this fact 
that we have the history of the creation itself; that we 
have an account of the first divisions into which the 
families of mankind were separated one from another. 
There is a single chapter in the Book of Genesis that 
gives the names and the characters of the primitive 
nations of the world, and the great scholar Bunsen says 
that it is the most learned of all the ancient writings, and 
the most ancient of all the learned writings; and that it 
contains information that all the historians that lived 



"BUT THESE ARE WRITTEN." 103 

afterwards could never have given, could never have 
supplied to the world. Moreover, it is a great thing that 
we possess a history that antedates all other history. The 
single fact recorded in the Old Testament of the migra- 
tion of Abraham is the most important fact that is con- 
nected with the history of any man that ever lived. The 
migration of that man was the beginning of a new era in 
the world's spiritual life. He became the progenitor of 
the nation that God made the depository of his truth, and 
upon which the light of revelation was shining brightly 
at a time when all the rest of the world was in the valley 
and shadow of death. The history we have of the con- 
quest of the land of Canaan by Joshua is the history of 
the providence that God ordained in order to establish 
his people, and the manner in which he desired to be 
worshipped at a time when all the rest of the world was 
in idolatary; and those ten commandments, written by 
the ringer of God, first upon tables of stone, and then 
recorded by the hand of Moses in this imperishable record 
— that comprehensive summary of all human duty, has 
had a greater influence upon the development of civiliza- 
tion, upon the establishment of justice, than all the codes, 
than all the Pandects, the institutions of Lycurgus, and 
Solon, and Justinian. And when we come to look at 
some of the names that are written in this book, we find in 
those men the true fathers of history, and the men who 
have continued to exert the most salutary influence upon 
all the generations that have succeeded them — such 
names as those of Abraham, and Moses, and Samuel, and 
David, and Elijah, and Daniel. 

Then we have the record of the earliest metrical com- 
positions that were ever framed and ever used in the 
devotions of the people of God, and the Psalms of David 
have given inspiration to all the holy hymns which have 



104 SERMONS. 

been sounded through the church in all generations of the 
world; and those Psalms of David still are the channels 
through which the purest and sweetest adoration of God's 
people ascend to the heavens. 

And this is because these things have been written. 
The Bible is possibly the only absolutely imperishable 
book. Whether that be so or not, this is true surely, that 
never, never, by any possibility can it be lost. If every 
copy of the Holy Scriptures in circulation through civil- 
ized countries were to be destroyed, we could still repro- 
duce the Bible immediately from the translations into 
which it has been made in all the heathen, pagan nations 
of the world, for into between two and three hundred 
languages this Bible has been translated. If throughout 
Christendom — by some catastrophe, which we can only 
imagine, but which could never be true — all the copies 
of the Scriptures should be annihilated, immediately they 
could be reproduced from the heathen nations into which 
the Word of God has been translated. 

I pass now to another great division of my theme, and 
to another point which illustrates the divine wisdom and 
goodness in giving us a written revelation. It is this : 
A written revelation saves the world from the uncertainty 
that attends all. tradition. There are only two ways in 
which truth can be transmitted from one generation to 
another, and they are orally or in a written form. But 
the memories of men are too treacherous to be trusted 
with a depository so sacred as that of God's will to man- 
kind. And not only so, not only are the memories of men 
treacherous, but what a proneness there is on the part of 
men to suppress and to silence what is uncongenial to the 
natural heart, and how many of the unwelcome truths of 
the Bible would have been silenced and suppressed if oral 
transmission were the only method by which these truths 



"BUT THESE ARE WRITTEN." 105 

could be handed down from one generation to another! 
Men are too fond of their own inventions — they are too 
ready to amend what they think ought to be amended and 
improved in the Holy Scriptures ; the world is too full of 
prejudice and sectarian bigotry to entrust with the trans- 
mission of the divine will through all the nations of the 
earth, through all the ages of time ; and, therefore, it has 
pleased God to put upon record that which it is essential 
to know. Tradition is ever shifting, ever changing, ever 
fluctuating. Tradition is like the mists that gather on the 
mountain top; the written word is like the steadfast 
mountain itself. Tradition is like the clouds that float 
through the sky; the written Word is like the stars that 
burn in their imperishable lustre in the eternal heaven 
above the clouds. Therefore, we are filled with humility 
and adoration when we recognize the divine goodness in 
putting all things it is essential to know upon record. 
"It is written I" 

I wish to call your attention to another illustration of 
this most interesting theme. I want to remind you of 
our Lord's reverence for the written Word. In the intro- 
ductory service of this afternoon I read to you a portion 
of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, contain- 
ing the account of our Lord's temptation in the wilder- 
ness. Just before he entered upon his public ministry, 
and just after his baptism, it pleased God to cause him 
to pass through the successive trials that are recorded in 
that chapter and in the fourth chapter of St. Matthew. 
There he was confronted with the great adversary of God 
and man; and after forty days in the wilderness, when 
he was a-hungered, then the devil said to him, "Command 
that these stones be made bread." What was our Lord's 
answer? It was, "It is written, Man shall not live by 
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 



io6 SERMONS. 

mouth of God." And next we read that when he was 
taken and placed upon the pinnacle of the temple, and told 
to cast himself down, and Satan himself quoted Scripture, 
and said, "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to 
keep thee in all thy ways, lest thou dash thy foot against 
a stone." Not only did Satan quote this Scripture, but 
in the quoting it, satanic like, he perverted the quotation, 
and did not give it in its true form. You may never have 
observed, but he left out a clause in the passage which 
he quoted from the ninety-first Psalm. Turn to the 
eleventh verse, and you will find the original, and there 
the Psalmist, speaking of God's providence over the good 
man, said, "He shall keep thee in all thy ways." He left 
out that clause ; that is, in the ways of duty — not author- 
izing running into unnecessary danger and tempting 
Providence, and then calling upon him. He left that 
phrase out, and said, "He shall keep thee and bear thee 
up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." What was 
our Lord's reply? It was this: Pie said, "It is written 
again." Notice, he said, "Again" — you have made one 
quotation, a misquotation ; now I make another, a true 
quotation, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." 
Once more. When he was carried to the summit of the 
high mountain and shown all the kingdoms of the world 
and the glory of them, and was told that all this power, 
and all this glory should be his if he would fall down and 
worship the tempter, then he said, "It is written, Thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou 
serve." And then the devil leaveth him and angels came 
and ministered unto him, and so that narrative closed. 

Now the thing to which I wish to call your attention, 
and which I hope you will fix in your memories, is this, 
that when our Lord was tempted, was exposed to the 
malice of the tempter, who was permitted for a season to 



"BUT THESE ARE WRITTEN." 107 

try him in these various ways, the only weapon which he 
used to drive him from his presence was a quotation from 
the Holy Scriptures, and three times he used exactly the 
same words, and said, "It is written." 

"These things," says the text, "were written" ; and 
how the wisdom of God shines in putting upon a perma- 
nent, imperishable record the things necessary to human 
happiness and human salvation. Once more. It is an 
unspeakable blessing to the church that all the creeds 
and all the confessions of faith which are formulated by 
councils or by assemblies owe their authority entirely to 
the fact that they are in direct accordance with what is 
written. Sometimes it is said that the churches are ruled 
arbitrarily by creeds and by confessions. There is not a 
Protestant church in all the world that recognizes the 
right of any council or any ecclesiastical body — no mat- 
ter what its name may be — that recognizes its right to 
impose any creed or confession of faith upon the church. 
Men do not test the Scriptures by the creed ; they test 
all creeds and all confessions of faith by the Scriptures; 
and during the great Reformation all the reformers in 
turn made plain that truth, namely, that no formulated 
articles of belief were binding upon the church because 
of the ecclesiastical authority that communicated them, 
and that they were only binding so far as they were in 
accordance with what is written. And, therefore, when 
new heresies arise, or when creeds are written that contain 
false articles of belief, we have at once the correction : we 
bring them to this touchstone, and we try their merits, 
and we ascertain their warrant to be promulgated and 
believed simply by comparing them with what is written 
in these holy Scriptures. 

Hence, I conclude what I have to say upon this sub- 
ject by reminding you that the text goes on to teach that 



io8 SERMONS. 

all these things have been written, that believing, we 
might have life through his name. The great object, then, 
of the written revelation is to establish and fortify the 
faith of the church. "It is written that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God." Now, if this house were filled 
with people instead of having this limited audience (a 
very sufficient one for this inclement evening — I am not 
complaining of that), and if I could leave this pulpit and 
go from one to another and say to this and to that one as 
they sit in their pews, "Do you believe that Jesus Christ 
is the Son of God ?" I take it for granted that ninety-nine 
out of one hundred would say, "I never doubted the 
divinity of Christ." I believe that the men that gave that 
answer would be sincere in saying that they believed that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Then, does it not 
follow logically that if this is their belief, then they ought 
to recognize that Christ is their personal Saviour; that 
they ought to identify themselves with his cause; that 
they ought to profess his name, and consecrate themselves 
to his service and to the extension of his kingdom in the 
world? But a man states that he believes that Jesus 
Christ came into the world to reveal great, indispensable 
truths, and that all a man has to do is to believe, and stops 
there — oh ! is there any inconsistency compared with the 
inconsistency of the man who says, "I believe that the 
Lord Jesus Christ was commissioned to come into this 
world to tell me how to make my peace with God, secure 
my salvation, and make my immortality a happy one," 
and stops there? Does he not convict himself of the 
greatest of all possible inconsistencies? What does our 
Lord say when he comes and confronts such men with 
statements like these: when he says, "Except a man be 
born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" ; when he 
says, "One thing is needful" — there are many things 



"BUT THESE ARE WRITTEN." 109 

that are important, but there is only one thing that is 
necessary ; there are many things that are desirable, there 
is only one thing that is indispensable. And the man, 
while Christ, the divine Teacher, is telling him that life, 
so far from becoming a blessing, will become to him the 
most dire of all calamities ; that it will be the most fearful 
of all curses, unless he seeks that new birth, that regenera- 
tion; unless he attends to that one indispensable thing, 
the interests of his soul. If that man says, "I believe that 
Jesus Christ was a teacher sent from God," and stops 
there — can there be any inconsistency like that ? The 
man that believes that Jesus is what he professes to be, 
and yet does not immediately and earnestly seek him, who 
does not immediately lay aside everything else and sacri- 
fice everything else, and give himself no rest until he 
seeks and obtains an interest in that great salvation which 
Christ has made possible by his death on the cross ! 
"These things are written that ye might believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" — and then recognize 
and respond to the single enduring claim that he has upon 
every man's service and upon every man's love. "And 
that believing ye might have life through his name." 
The great end, then, of this written revelation is to show 
how we may obtain that new, divine life. I cannot in the 
conclusion of this discourse attempt to unfold that great 
theme, the method by which we may obtain that divine 
life. Let me but say that the simple exercise of faith 
unites us to Christ and makes us one with him. The 
moment I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and 
give my heart to him, and consecrate everything I have 
to him, that moment a new tie is established between 
myself and my Lord. Faith is receiving Christ as the 
free gift of God, and resting upon him for salvation as 
he is offered to us in the gospel. The moment I receive 



no SERMONS. 

him, and rest upon him, that moment he receives me, and 
the moment he receives me I become an adopted child 
of God — "For as many as received him, to them gave he 
power to become the sons of God, even to as many as 
believed on his name." 

Well, if I am made one with Christ by that bond of 
faith, then as he has life in himself, do you not see I am 
obliged to partake in that life, and though a little while 
ago I was among the spiritually dead, I have now been 
quickened, and I can say, "I live, and yet not I, but Christ 
that liveth in me." I am made a partaker of the divine 
nature, and just as the branch abides in the vine and 
draweth from the vine its nourishment, and becomes 
fruitful and beautiful, I being grafted in Christ, abide 
in Christ, and am sustained by him ; and his Spirit sanc- 
tifying me, makes me like him in life as well as character 
— makes me like him in outward life, for every life that 
is a true life manifests itself outwardly ; and the great 
end of revelation will be accomplished, the great end for 
which I was born will be accomplished. It is a great 
thing that God has brought us into being, and made us 
living souls ; but, oh ! what is that compared with the 
greater boon, the greater blessing of so quickening our 
souls that we are made partakers of the divine life and 
our immortality an immortality of blessedness and glory. 
These things were written that we might live in Christ, 
and have that life abundantly ; and any man that wants 
it, that sincerely wants it, and earnestly seeks it, will find 
it, for Christ is just the Saviour that every sinner needs, 
and all the sinner needs is to say, with humble faith and 
confidence — 

" Just as I am, for love unknown 
Has broken every barrier down ; 
Now to be thine, and thine alone, 
O Lamb of God, I come!" 



IX. 
THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 

"That thou mayst know the certainties of those things wherein 
thou hast been instructed." — Luke i. 4. 

MY theme for two Sunday afternoons was "the 
certainties of religion," and those who were present 
may remember that I had occasion to allude to a very 
pathetic incident in the history of one of the most eminent 
citizens of this commonwealth — a man of the staunchest 
patriotism, a man of the most indomitable courage, and 
who was honored by his fellow-citizens with one of the 
highest offices within their gift. He was sadly troubled 
with skeptical doubts, and one day, in conversation with 
me, he told me of the particular one that greatly dis- 
tressed him. He said that if Jesus Christ was what he 
represented himself to be, that the birth of the Son of 
God was the most important event in all the procession 
of the ages ; that if Christ died on the cross for the 
redemption of the world, then there was no fact com- 
parable to that, either in this world's history or the history 
of any other world, because the birth and death of the 
God-man, of the Redeemer of the race, was the greatest 
fact that could possibly exist in the universe of God. 
"But," said he, "if such marvellous events as those occur- 
red, why do we only have the account of them in the 
Scriptures? Why did none of the great secular writers, 
the renowed historians that were contemporaneous with 
the evangelists make mention of those stupendous 
events?" It was my privilege to tell him that they did; 



ii2 SERMONS. 

it was my privilege to tell you last Sunday afternoon what 
were the testimonies that 'have been borne to the Christ, 
who was born in Bethlehem, and died upon Calvary ; the 
testimony, not of men who believed in his divine birth 
and mission, but of men like Tacitus, the impartial Roman 
historian, the testimony of the elegant Pliny, the testi- 
mony of the infidel writers of the time — men who never 
pretended to deny the birth of Christ, who did not deny 
that he wrought great miracles, although they attributed 
them to satanic influence ; men that did not question the 
purity of his life, or the fact that he was crucified, as his 
disciples said, "for the sins of the world." 

There is something very interesting in this ; and how 
many young men in our city and country, whose reading 
has not made them familiar with these writers, are ignor- 
ant of the fact that there is not an important truth, not a 
statement made in these Scriptures with regard to Christ, 
that is not corroborated by the testimony of skeptical 
writers that wrote against Christianity in the first cen- 
tury ! I could take the writings of Celsus, and Porphyry, 
and Julian the Apostate — the Emperor Julian — and 
reconstruct a large portion of the life of Christ, and what 
is written in these New Testament Scriptures. 

Then again, in speaking of "the certainties of relig- 
ion," I showed that the world had one perfect ideal, one 
example that was worthy of imitation, one teacher that 
was infallible, one that illustrated all possible virtues, and 
that the ideal which was presented by Jesus of Nazareth 
was just the ideal for which the world had sighed. How 
did I attempt to prove it? Not by quotations from these 
gospels, but from the writings of writers of all ages, who 
have paid their tribute to the matchless beauty of the 
Saviour's character — men who have differed in all else, 
but have united in paying homage to Christ; men of 



THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 113 

different nationalities, different degrees of genius and 
education, men of all faiths and of no faith; men that 
differed in everything else, yet united in admitting that 
the Son of Mary was the most faultless model that had 
ever been presented to humanity for its study and imita- 
tion; and oftentimes these men, when they came with 
their inquisitive, prying eyes in their great desire to detect 
some flaw, some blemish in the character and life of 
Christ, went away filled with a genuine, irrepressible 
admiration to testify that he was the ideal of matchless 
loveliness, who alone could satisfy both the intellect and 
the heart! Among the skeptical writers quoted were 
Spinoza, Strauss, Goethe, Kant, Schiller, Diderot, Marat, 
Rosseau, Renan, Carlyle, Buckle, Lecky, and John Stuart 
Mill. 

1. To-day I discuss the subject upon a new and 
totally different line : my theme this afternoon is that the 
Christian religion is the only religion in the world that, 
by any possibility, can become a universal religion; the 
only religion that has a prospect, an assurance of being 
the religion of the world. This is so, in the first place, 
because of its power of adaptation to all the races, to all 
the families of mankind, dwelling in all the latitudes and 
longitudes of the earth, whether they live upon the great 
continents or upon the islands of the sea — its perfect 
adaptation to all kindreds, and tongues, and tribes of the 
globe; and its freedom from all that would restrict its 
influence or hinder its progress. 

Had it identified itself with any one race, that would 
have excited the antagonism of alien populations, and 
that very fact would have caused them to reject the 
religion that had allied itself with a hated race. Chris- 
tianity did, indeed, appear in Palestine; it is true its 
founder and apostles were Jews; but it is equally true 
8 



ii4 SERMONS. 

that it was never their purpose to confine their religion 
to the narrow limits of Palestine. Its Founder himself, 
in giving his instructions to his disciples, told them to 
"go and preach the gospel in Judea, and in Samaria" — 
poor little provinces ; and a miserable outcome that would 
have been if it had been all ! But what did he add ? "And 
unto the ends of the earth." One of the early heralds of 
Christianity was a man who prided himself upon his 
Jewish ancestry, his Jewish education ; but when he 
entered upon his new career he tells us that on one 
occasion when he was meditating, he had a vision of a 
man from Macedonia, and across the waters came the 
cry, "Come over and help us." And, obedient to the call, 
the Apostle crossed those waters, and landed upon the 
European shore, and preached the first sermon ever heard 
in Europe. Oh ! how marvellous from that moment was 
the expansion of the church of God. First, the light rose 
in Palestine, but it went up to the zenith, that it might 
illumine all the nations. Westward the star of empire 
took its way, until the star encircled the globe, and came 
back to shine again upon the place where the infant Re- 
deemer lay in his cradle! Europe became Christianized, 
in the providence of God, that its enterprising nations 
might become the great missionaries to all the rest of the 
world. The Christianization of Europe made the Chris- 
tianizing of these United States possible. Missions have 
ever been the mother of churches. 

Thus we see how, in the providence of God, Chris- 
tianity, so far from allying itself to any particular family 
or race of mankind, was never local, never sectional, but 
always cosmopolitan. Had it linked itself 'to any single 
race, or particular form of government, or to any system 
of philosophy, or to any physical science, it would have 
been thereby limited and hampered in its progress. But 



THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 1 1 5 

it is equally adapted to all the tribes and kindreds of the 
earth. It can flourish under any form of government, 
giving strength and stability to that which is good, and 
steadily, silently counteracting and undermining that 
which is evil ; nourishing and developing what is fit to 
survive, and accelerating the decay of what deserves to 
perish — pronouncing in favor of no one form of govern- 
ment in preference to another. It has identified itself 
with no system of philosophy, with no school of science, 
with no theory of political economy; so that by none of 
these can its marvellous growth be impeded. Had it 
ever linked itself to any one of these, it would have been 
fatal to it. Suppose the Scriptures had taught that the 
Ptolomaic system of astronomy was the true one. When 
the Copernican system was established and the Ptolemaic 
overthrown, the Bible would have been overthrown with 
it. If it had been a matter of revelation, when the falsity 
of that system was demonstrated, revelation would have 
received a shock from which it could not have recovered. 
The same thing would have been true had Christianity 
allied itself with any of the great forms of philosophy. 
For example, take the splendid philosophy of Aristotle, 
which for centuries held the intellects of men in unques- 
tioning submission, but by and by Bacon arose with his 
new system of induction, and overthrew it. How for- 
tunate that none of the writers in these Scriptures said a 
word about these systems ; therefore, Christianity has 
gone on in its imperial march. God has been pleased to 
keep his Word entirely separate and distinct from every 
one of these things, which would have crippled it, and 
rendered its progress to the universal conquest of the 
nations impossible. 

2. All the other great religions have in them, or at- 
tached to them, institutions or forms of worship, or car- 



n6 SERMONS. 

dinal articles of belief which make them local; limited, 
and incapable of universal expansion. Take, for instance, 
that wonderful country that now is perplexing all the 
people that read and write and think about it — that vast 
Empire of China, with its population of five hundred 
million. There Confucius sways his sceptre; but the 
faith of Confucius means the worship of ancestors, and 
the worship of ancestors means the bondage of the living 
to the despotism of the dead ; makes anything like prog- 
ress absolutely impossible, and links that great people 
irrevocably to the past — a narrow, ignoble past. In 
India Brahminism dominates, but with its pitiless tyranny 
of caste makes freedom, brotherhood, community of in- 
terests impossible. In other parts of Asia Buddha reigns 
with a gentle sway ; but it is a religion without hope, 
except the hope of finally escaping the miseries of life by 
escaping from conscious being. Over a large portion of 
Asia and Africa Mahomet sways his despotic sceptre ; 
but Mahometanism means the degradation of woman, it 
means the control of manhood by inevitable, irresistible 
fate — not providence, but inexorable fate. 

These religions all have in them peculiarities, charac- 
teristics, which confine them to certain latitudes or zones 
of the earth, and which, by necessity, prevent their spread 
in climates where their rites cannot be celebrated, or 
among races made antagonistic by alien blood and physi- 
cal dissimilarity. But the soil has not been found where 
the seeds of Christianity cannot be planted, nor the 
climate where its vigorous plants cannot flourish. There 
is scarcely a language into which its sacred books have 
not been translated; and no tribe where its converts 
may not be counted. There are those in this audience 
who have seen its mission stations on the banks of 
the Nile, its Christian colleges on the shores of the 



THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 117 

Bosphorus, and its churches in Calcutta, Bombay and 
Damascus. 

3. Christianity is destined to be the religion of the 
world, because it is the religion of the only progressive 
nations, by which I mean the colonizing, enterprising 
nations, those who are making advances by reason of free 
institutions, just laws, useful inventions, sound learning, 
and ever-increasing commerce. If you are interested in 
an illustration of the rapid progress of Christian civiliza- 
tion, let me remind you of what has been accomplished 
during the present century. We are now near the end 
of the nineteenth century ; the twentieth century will soon 
begin. One hundred years ago, as the eighteenth century 
was drawing to its close, the republic of the United 
States was born, and already this imperial confederated 
empire of States has attained to such prosperity and 
power as to make it evident that by the middle of the 
century just at hand it will be the dominant nation of the 
world. Another continent, Australia, has been populated 
by a Christian people, and will soon become another of 
the great representatives of modern civilization. One 
hundred years ago Europe had little intercourse with 
the Oriental world, and no influence over its vast terri- 
tories, with their incalculable populations. But now be- 
hold the magnificent Empire of England in India, with 
her laws, her schools, her literature, her religious faith, 
quickening into a new life that mighty realm of im- 
measurable possibilities of future greatness under the 
transforming power of the gospel of Christ. Great 
Britain, at the beginning of the century, was but a proph- 
ecy of what it is to-day in population, wealth, commerce, 
all the elements of national greatness. At the beginning 
of the nineteenth century there was not a railroad on the 
earth, there was not a steamer on the sea, there was not a 



n8 SERMONS. 

telegraph line in any country. Franklin then had not 
even evoked a single electric spark from the thunder- 
cloud ; and now that mysterious element is becoming the 
motor power, which is destined to supplant steam, the 
brilliant irradiator, and replace all other modes of illumi- 
nation. All these discoveries, all these subordinations of 
the forces of nature to the use, convenience, and comfort 
of mankind have burst upon the world almost in our own 
day. And these are but the minor factors of Christian 
civilization. The gospel is the world's true reformer, the 
one great factor of the nobler civilization that we call 
Christian. 

Once the world was startled by the dismemberment of 
one little nation — the partition of Poland between three 
great powers — but now just at hand is the dismember- 
ment of two great continents, Asia and Africa. Their 
dismemberment and disintegration has already com- 
menced. China, already humiliated by defeat, torn by 
internal dissensions, with no cohesive principle, with no 
settled autonomy, will soon be an outlying province of 
Russia. Germany, France and England are dividing 
Africa between themselves : one takes five hundred miles 
of coast, another a thousand miles of coast, and fortifies 
itself in the interior. How long it will be before letters 
of administration will be taken out on the estate of the 
Sultan of Turkey it is impossible to say, but probably in 
the near future. Constantinople trembles as she feels the 
pulsations of the coming earthquake. Between the beak 
of the Russian Eagle and the claws of the British Lion, 
Turkey, exasperated by being compelled to submit to the 
most trying humiliations, longs for the return of the 
good old days when Suleiman the Magnificent carried 
his conquests far up the Danube and thundered at the 
gate of Vienna — days never to return ; for it cannot be 



THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 1 19 

long before the beautiful throat of the Bosphorus will be 
no longer grasped by the leprous hand of the Turk, and 
when a Scripture verse in Greek, carved on what was 
once a Christian church, but now a Mohammedan 
mosque, "Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting king- 
dom ; to thy dominion there shall be no end," shall find its 
fulfilment, and when the Ottoman Empire will form a 
part of the dominions over which he who has a right to 
reign will sway his sceptre of righteousness and peace. 
Four hundred millions of the human race are already 
under the control of Christian nations, and the church is 
now girding herself for new conquests and preparing for 
an extension more vast and rapid than has ever been 
known. 

4. Consider, too, what is involved in the fact that the 
English language is fast becoming the dominant language 
of the world. The significance of that fact is evident, 
not only because it is true that the English language is 
the language of commerce, of diplomacy, of international 
arbitration ; but because it is the language in which more 
copies of the Holy Scriptures are to be found than in all 
other languages together, and because more missionaries 
of the cross are proclaiming their messages of salvation 
than in all the other tongues of the world combined. No 
other language, ancient or modern, is resplendent with 
such a galaxy of historians, orators and poets. Once the 
Greek literature was the noblest in the world ; but in its 
palmiest days it did not boast of such a constellation of 
noble writers as now illumines the literature of the world. 
The Greek language, with all its flexibility and beauty, 
compares with English as Homer compares with Shakes- 
peare — a noble writer, indeed, justly entitled to enduring 
fame ; but how limited his range, and how ethically 
inferior to that king of thoughtful men. And, above all, 



120 SERMONS. 

it is the English language that bears the ark of Christian 
civilization all over the world. 

No, it makes no difference where a man was born ; the 
gospel comes to him and plants the seeds of glory in his 
soul, and transforms him and makes a new creature of 
him. 

There was a scientific association in the city of Edin- 
burgh, which was composed, for the most part, of physi- 
cians. At one of their meetings a discussion came up as 
to whether there were not some nations so degraded and 
morally embruted as to be incapable of civilization. Quite 
a number agreed to the proposition, and one gave as an 
illustration the diminutive, stunted little Bushmen, about 
the Cape of Good Hope. It was impossible, he said, to 
civilize them — even Christianity would be a failure 
among them. There was a stranger present, and he got 
up and asked if a stranger might be permitted to say 
something about the subject under discussion. He was 
told he was at liberty to take any part he pleased in the 
discussion. He said he did not pretend to dispute with 
those learned gentlemen. "But," said he, "as I once 
lived at the Cape of Good Hope among these people, 
whose civilization you think impossible, I would like to 
tell you a little incident. There was an English officer, a 
stranger in the country, a man of splendid physique. 
One day in riding through the country he lost his way in 
the jungle and found it impossible to recover the route 
he was travelling. Finally, through the thick under- 
growth, he caught the gleam of a light, and following the 
light, he found himself opposite the cottage of one of 
these Bushmen. Hearing the clatter of horses' feet, the 
native came out, and seeing the tall Englishman, with 
brilliant uniform, and his sword girded on his side, made 
him a low salutation, and asked him to condescend to 



THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 121 

come in and take such shelter as his humble roof would 
give. A frugal meal was prepared. After it was over, 
the Bushman said, 'My wife and I have a custom of 
reading a chapter, and having a prayer together ; it would 
embarrass me to offer a prayer in your presence, but we 
are glad that you are here to conduct this service for us/ 
The Englishman said that he had never learned to pray 
himself, and could not conduct the family devotions, but 
would be very glad to unite with them. The Bushman 
read a chapter, and then he kneeled down and made a 
fervent, humble prayer in which he prayed God to bless 
the stranger that was under his roof, and permit him to 
once more return to his home. And when the prayer was 
ended, the Bushman discovered the Englishman was still 
on his knees; and thinking, in consequence of the 
fatigues of the day, he had fallen asleep, he went to him. 
But he found that he was weeping. At last he rose, and 
said, T came from a Christian land to this heathen coun- 
try, but I came to find myself a heathen. And now, God's 
grace helping me, I promise here under this roof that I 
will endeavor to pass from heathenism into the hope of 
Christianity.' " Having told this story, the stranger sat 
down. Nobody attempted to refute it. The religion that 
could take one of those brutal men, those diminutive, 
stunted apes, as they were called, and make him a model 
to the Englishman, is a religion that speaks for itself. 

All the nations shall ultimately be gathered into one 
common brotherhood. 

" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Doth his successive journeys run; 
His kingdom spread from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more." 

Never was there a time when life was so well worth 
living as to-day; never a time when a young man's op- 



122 SERMONS. 

portunities for usefulness were so splendid as to-day; 
and, oh ! how much to be envied is that young man who 
knows what the possibilities of the future may be, and 
who consecrates himself to God, and is, by God's blessing, 
enabled to spend a long and useful life in the service of 
his Maker and Redeemer, and the service of his fellow- 
men. The songs that we have been singing to-day are 
beginning to be echoed throughout the earth, and before 
long one song shall employ all nations, and the praise of 
one Christ shall be heard encircling the globe. 

" Oh ! may I bear some humble part 
In that immortal song. 
Wonder and joy shall fill my heart, 
And love command my tongue." 



.__ 



X. 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

"THE SPIRIT AND POWER OF ELIJAH." 

"And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah." 
— Luke i. 17. 

IN every generation, the great God who walks through 
human history unseen, and whose invisible hand 
directs human affairs, has raised up men to meet every 
crisis involving human progress, and the ultimate re- 
demption of the race. In a monarchical government, men 
are so trained that they are led to expect leaders, and not 
to act independently as individuals. In governments 
called paternal, the people are not educated to think for 
themselves, or to lay plans for their own government, 
but are expected to submit to the laws, and to follow the 
dictation of those who are supposed to be capable of 
directing them. And even in a republican government, 
the mass of the people, from conscious ignorance often- 
times of the true inwardness of great questions, and of 
what would be best as lines of national policy, prefer to 
be led by those in whose experience, whose wisdom, and 
in whose patriotism they have confidence. There is an 
unconscious element in humanity that leads us to rely 
upon men of superior strength ; men who are supposed to 
be capable of relieving the masses of the people from the 
evils which they fear, and of conducting them to the goal 
of good to which they aspire ; men who are supposed to 
be capable of vindicating their rights, and redressing 
their wrongs. Decision, courage, inflexibility, determi- 



I2 4 SERMONS. 

nation — when qualities like these are consecrated to 
noble ends, then the man who possesses them will always 
have a following. The man who is believed to represent 
great principles is the incarnation of the power that others 
respect, and he is the man who touches the popular 
imagination, and inspires popular enthusiasm. Such men 
are welcomed by the people with open arms, and are 
elevated to the highest positions of influence and trust; 
they are supposed to be capable of marking out the true 
policy for the great majority over whom they have influ- 
ence, and such are the men who not only develop what is 
good, and what must be developed in national resources, 
but they are the men who leave the imprint of their own 
personalities upon the generation to which they belong; 
and not only so, but they are the men who transmit the 
influence which they exert to ages which will come after 
— we know not how many generations of the world. 

It is very interesting to notice the great variety of men 
who have written and thought upon these subjects, and 
to see how they unite in their opinion. Last Sunday I 
had occasion to quote the terse and comprehensive saying 
of Carlyle, when he declared that universal history is but 
the history of the great men who make history. Can you 
think of any one more unlike Carlyle in sentiment, edu- 
cation and character than Goethe? Yet he says there 
never was a great reform inaugurated or consummated by 
the people, but always by one who acted for the people as 
their representative. John Stuart Mill, in his treatise on 
"Liberty," says the great majority of the people in any 
land represent only mediocrity, and mediocrity is not 
competent to lead. 

And so we see, when men travel, and reach the vast 
tablelands that stretch almost across some continents, the 
journey and the view from day to day is one of extreme 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 125 

and wearisome monotony; but when there are mountain 
peaks that rise snow-capped and glittering in the sun, 
then there is something to rest the eye, and absorb the 
admiration ; and great and good men rise from the table- 
lands, even as the mountain peaks that condense the 
clouds and make the showers to furnish the fountains, 
from which flow the waters that irrigate the plains and 
the valleys of the earth. 

Half way between Moses and Christ — one thousand 
years before Christ was born — there suddenly burst upon 
the vision of the world the old prophet Elijah. There is 
no character more distinctly prominent in all its grand 
and rugged features than his. There is no life more 
unique than his. He came from what ancestry? Nobody 
knows. Other great agents of God's providence had 
family ties: we know something about their households, 
and their kindred. Of Elijah we know absolutely nothing 
in these respects. We only know that he was a native 
of those wild countries beyond the Jordan, in the land of 
Gilead, which stood in about the same relation to the rest 
of Palestine that in ancient times the North of Scotland, 
inhabited by fierce Highlanders, stood to those who in- 
habited the cities and towns and farmhouses of the low 
countries. This man, born and bred in solitude, amid the 
wild fastnesses of Gilead, was utterly unknown until he 
burst out with that unexpectedness which always char- 
acterizes movements at a great crisis in the history of 
Israel. He came to represent a great truth. When I tell 
you what the truth was, it will not impress you very 
much perhaps, because it is something with which we are 
so familiar ; it is something we think so essential that we 
almost take it for granted that it is a truth everywhere 
believed, and everywhere leaving its impression. Elijah 
came to represent the great truth that the Lord God was 



126 SERMONS. 

one God, and that there should be no other gods before 
him. 

At the period when Elijah made his appearance as the 
vindicator of this great truth, Israel was in danger of 
utterly losing the last shreds of belief in the supreme, 
spiritual God that rules the world by his providence. 
That was the time when Israel, or what few devout men 
lived in Israel, saw with consternation an idolatrous 
king sitting upon the throne ; and not only so, but an 
idolatrous king who married an idolatrous wife, and she 
the daughter of Ethbaal of Tyre, a great patron of poly- 
theism in that adjacent land. The father of Ahab ob- 
tained the throne by the murder of his brother, and the 
daughter inheriting the cruelty, and the genius also, of 
the long line to which she belonged, the moment she 
became the wife of Israel's king began to use her influ- 
ence, and her fascinating power, in the establishment of 
idolatry throughout Israel. 

I have not time this morning to speak of the pomp 
and imposing character of the ceremony. I must say, 
however, that the deities worshipped and introduced by 
Ahab and his wife were Baal and Astaroth — Baal, the 
God of Sun, and Astaroth or Ashtoreth — which filled the 
land with voluptuous, cruel, abominable, unmentionable 
worship. Such was the position of things. And this was 
the great occasion which Providence selected for the 
certain introduction of this man into the presence of the 
king, and when he came, he came first into contact, not 
only with the throne, but with the power that was behind 
the throne, which was a great deal stronger than the 
throne itself. There is no power in the world so dan- 
gerous, and so fatal, as the power of a wicked woman, 
when endowed with great intellect, ambition and de- 
termined will, and when these gifts are united with per- 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 127 

sonal charm and captivating manners. When Elijah came 
into contact with Jezebel, it was a great crisis in the 
history of Israel's people. It was the conflict of one 
strong, indomitable spirit with another spirit equally as 
strong and indomitable, with this difference, that the one 
spirit was inspired from above, while the other was a 
spirit in alliance with the prince and power of darkness. 

Elijah was the man for the time. Probably in the 
whole land he was the only man fitted, and he came to 
uphold the great truth, which was a vital truth, or foun- 
dation truth of theocracy, that God ruled, and that Israel 
was his people. You talk about the union of church and 
state. What do you mean by that? You mean that the 
state, which is one organization, and the church, which is 
a totally different organization, have entered into a com- 
pact, and promise, by which they shall unite their forces 
for certain purposes. There was no such union as that in 
ancient Israel. It was not a union between church and 
state, because their church and state were one, and never 
anything else but one ; no organization to the right, and 
none to the left, but one organization that included both ; 
so that the state was only one manifestation of theocracy, 
and the church another manifestation of theocracy, and 
God underlying all ; God distinct in all, and God making 
himself manifest in all. That was the great truth that 
had to be vindicated in the age in which Elijah lived, and 
if that truth had been lost, in vain would have been the 
attempt to continue the succession of the church, and 
Christianity itself would never have been born. 

And so among the old reformers, you see that Elijah 
stands the impersonation of the principle, the represen- 
tative of the great cause, just as Athanasius afterwards 
stood to uphold the doctrine of the Godhood of Christ, as 
Luther afterwards came representing another principle — 



128 SERMONS. 

the principle of justification by faith, and that the soul 
needs no mediator between man and God, save Christ 
Jesus; that the priesthood is abolished; that the con- 
science is free, and that the open Bible, held reverently, 
with prayer to God for the Spirit's illumination, is the 
soul's only needed guide to truth and heaven. At one 
period of the world Elijah represented the truth that lies 
at the foundation of both these other truths to which I 
refer ; for if the world had lost its belief in the existence 
of an intelligent, personal, loving God, and had a vice- 
gerent on the earth prepared for both, and intended that 
both should triumph at the last, then Athanasius would 
never have had an inch of ground upon which to stand, 
and there never would have been any room for Luther, 
and the world would never have heard of either. 

And so it came to pass that Elijah was a sort of intro- 
duction, sort of forerunner of all the reformers and up- 
holders of the truth that came after him. He possessed 
just the qualities that were necessary for a man who had 
to meet such exigencies as those which confronted him. 
If you ask me what those qualities were, I will answer, 
in the first place, his great, predominant qualification was 
courage — moral courage. There is a difference between 
courage and bravery. Bravery is the result of the physi- 
cal constitution. Some men are naturally brave, with 
their developed muscles, and strong nervous system, and 
perfect balance through all the various functions of the 
frame which their souls inhabit — and the result is 
bravery. But there is something higher than this, and 
that is courage. Courage is the moral quality, and some 
men who are not brave are courageous, because the moral 
quality is the ascendant and the regnant faculty con- 
trols the natural fear. You remember when an officer 
spoke sneeringly of a younger officer who in battle showed 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 129 

signs of trepidation, and mentioned it to the commander, 
the commander answered, "Yes, and if you were as much 
frightened as he, you would run away, but you will see 
that he will stand his ground, for he has moral courage." 
There is many a man whose physical make-up is such 
that he may tremble in the presence of danger, but who 
has within him the inflexible sort of spirit that he stands 
his ground to the last. That is moral courage. I call it 
moral because it is that in a man which leads him to 
abhor the wrong. There are some things which it is 
right to hate. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that 
which is good. The moral attribute of which I speak is 
that which leads men to abhor injustice, oppression and 
wrong of any character, and which leads them to admire 
and uphold the right. Then courage becomes tinctured 
with principle, and when imbued with principle it becomes 
a moral quality, and the men who have moral courage are 
the men who, when they espouse a great cause, are loyal 
to it to the end, without regard to personal consequences. 
That is another element of it. I say they are loyal to 
their principle to the end, without regard to personal 
consequences ; they have given themselves to the cause, 
and the cause possesses them, has taken possession of 
them, and so they mean to maintain it at the cost of any 
sacrifice, or at the cost of any peril that may happen to 
themselves. 

Ah ! how rare such men are. Sprinkled here and there 
over the wide, wide field of history, you see one and an- 
other — but how few. How few will stake all on a 
principle, and die for it if need be, rather than desert it? 
Such was Elijah, and as a second evidence I will mention 
the conviction that he had that he was God Almighty's 
representative, and that he was the Lord's agent — an 
incident in accomplishing a certain work. Says David in 
9 



130 SERMONS. 

one of the Psalms, "I have set the Lord always before 
me ; because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved." 
Who does not know that if a man believes there walks at 
his side through all the days, and through all the duties 
of life, an Omnipotent One who is his friend, that that 
man will have all the strength that can be infused into 
humanity? It was so with Elijah. His ordinary intro- 
duction, when he presented himself, was, "The God before 
whom I stand," "The God in whose name I come," "The 
God upon whose strength I lay hold." When John Wes- 
ley was dying, one of the last things he said was, "The 
best of all is, God is with us." Yes, my friends, that is 
the best of all. And the man who has the conviction that 
God is with him, and that God is smiling upon him, and 
that God at last will recompense him, is the only man 
who is invincibly strong, and the only man who will 
probably succeed, because he has the courage of the 
highest and holiest conviction that can animate the hu- 
man heart. 

The third element which Elijah had which fitted him 
for the age in which he lived, to do the work he had to 
accomplish, was that he lived in such communion with 
God that whatever was most elevating and noble in its 
nature was developed, until he acquired that force that 
the highest spirituality always invests a man with. When 
the greatest of modern soldiers was speaking of a young 
officer in the Austrian army, he said, "One thing about 
that man, he is a thoroughly good man, and that is worth 
everything else." That is a great deal to come from the 
lips of the First Napoleon, that he should recognize the 
inflexibility of goodness, and put it in the forefront of 
the battle of the right for the world. 

When Walter Scott was dying, he said, "Lockhart, 
be a good man ; that is worth all the rest." Says the man 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 131 

of many books and wide operations, the man that had 
studied human nature and knew it well, and the man 
who recognized the fact that after all, the greatest force 
of the world was the spiritual force of a man that lived 
in communion with God. 

When Elijah was about to go away, he took off that 
rough mantle which he had been in the habit of wearing, 
and wrapped it together like a robe, or a scroll, and 
divided the river, and then when Elisha had crossed over 
with him he unfolded the mantle and threw it upon the 
shoulders of Elisha, and Elisha became his successor, and 
it was said he inherited the spirit of his master, Elijah, 
and this was written about him, "I perceive that thou art 
a holy man of God." Among all the titles that can be 
written under the name of the man, or above the name 
of the man, or around the name of the man, is that of 
"holy man of God." "A man of God" is a great thing, 
without the "holy." We say of certain men who have 
great experience, great knowledge of human nature, great 
acquaintance with the affairs of the world — we say of 
one man, he is a man of the world. That is his title. 
Of another, we say, he is a man of affairs. We say of 
another, he is a man of pleasure — a man who devotes 
himself to the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and 
the pride of life — he is a man of pleasure. Of another 
man, who is capable of laying down plans for the guid- 
ance of the coming generation, and who knows what are 
the essential principles of an enduring free government, 
we say he is a man of the state. But the greatest thing 
of all is to call a man "a man of God," and when, in addi- 
tion to that it is said that he is a "holy man of God," then 
that man exhibits something of the divinity which stirs 
within him; that man emits something of the divine 
power in him, and for that reason he has to make his 



i& SERMONS. 

impress upon the generation of which he forms a 
part. 

It is something very interesting to notice that a man 
of such qualities not only is able to exert influence which 
spreads all around him — just as when you throw a peb- 
ble into a smooth pool, and the circles widen and widen 
until they touch the brink; but they have a projectile 
influence — a projectile power, a propulsive power, which 
sends that influence down through the ages. The first 
illustration we have of that is about what I have just 
mentioned, that the spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha. The 
next is, that all through the Oriental lands there was a 
strange superstition about Elisha, and that was, that he 
was to appear in the world again, not only once, but as 
often as he might be needed. Did you know, my friends, 
that the Jews, for centuries, when they celebrated the 
Passover, had a cup filled, and a chair ready for Elisha, 
in case he should enter and partake of the sacred banquet ? 
Did you know that among the Bedouin Arabs there had 
always been a tradition that Elijah had always been 
travelling the earth in the form of an Arab merchant, ap- 
pearing for the defence of the weak, and the overthrowal 
of the wicked? Do you remember that Abdul Pasha, of 
Persia, almost died of fear, because he fancied he had a 
vision of Elijah upon Mt. Carmel? And so the feeling 
has grown, and continued to exist in the world, that a 
time would come when upon some mountain, exceeding 
great and high, Elijah would be seen again, as he actually 
was seen when Christ was transfigured. Such, my 
friends, is the history of this reform, of this representative 
of a great truth of his day : of this great herald of the 
prophets, and of the reformers, and of the martyrs, and 
of the confessors. Now I close my sermon by saying that 
we may look through the history of the world, and we 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 133 

will always find that this has been the plan. When Israel 
was enchained and debauched by oppression, Moses was 
raised up to bring the people out of their bondage, and 
when during their forty years' marching and wandering 
through the wilderness they relapsed into idolatry, and 
the plague was sent among them, he stood between the 
living and the dead, and the plague was stayed. And 
when the particular time came Elijah was raised up, and 
he prepared the way for Isaiah, and he for Jeremiah, and 
for the minor prophets, and for Malachi, whose last chap- 
ter says that one shall come in the spirit and power of 
Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, 
and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest he 
come and smite the earth with a curse. 

Oh ! my friends, this is a very impressive truth, and 
it is that during all these generations the men that have 
been raised up — the men in patriarchal days, the judges 
that ruled Israel, and then the prophets that remonstrated 
with Israel for their sins, and then in the days of our 
Lord the disciples he called around him, and after them 
the confessors and martyrs that followed him — that is 
the sad line of truth that runs through this history. You 
ask what it is? These men were never recognized, never 
appreciated for their true worth, by the generations to 
which they belonged. Oftentimes — always, we may say, 
with but few exceptions — their whole history is summed 
up in that wonderful statement of the Apostle Paul, when 
in describing the true heroes of the world, he says they 
were stoned ; they were sawn asunder ; they wandered 
in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, tormented 
and afflicted, and then when the ages passed by, after the 
people slew the prophets, they built tombs for them, and 
gathered around them, and paid them almost divine 
honors, But what a lesson it is for men to appreciate the 



134 SERMONS. 

good of those who live among them, while they live, and 
not wait to pay them posthumous honors when the world 
is made poorer by their departure and is bereaved by 
their loss. And we must not be discouraged, my friends, 
if in this great fight of what is wrong in the world, if we 
are misrepresented, if we are misunderstood. Let us not 
be discouraged. There has always been something im- 
pressive to me in that picture of the Mohammedan relig- 
ion, showing that those who cross the bottomless gulf on 
a long bridge to enter into Paradise, have to march one 
by one through an arch of crossed scymetars — reminding 
them of what their earthly conflict must be — swords 
crossed above them, and beyond 'that archway Paradise. 
Thus it has been. Other men have labored, other men 
have suffered, but ye have entered into their labor. 
Please recollect this, that we can never recompense those 
people, when they are gone, by any honors which we pay 
to their memory; our applauses never go down, never 
reach the cold shades of death. When men lie in their 
coffins they do not hear our praises, and our praises never 
ascend to the realms of light and glory ; they cannot reach 
that height, and the only return we can make to those who 
have labored and suffered and triumphed for us in con- 
tending for the right and truth in the world, and the only 
true way of showing our gratitude, is to fall into line 
ourselves, and join the great procession of those who have 
been trying to maintain the empire of principle in this 
world. Let the torch of truth be transmitted from hand 
to hand, and from generation to generation, until it shall 
illuminate the earth. This is the way, my friends, in 
which we may show our gratitude to those who are gone, 
by inheriting their spirit, by walking in the light of their 
holy example, and by waiting for God's own time in 
which to bestow upon us the recompense and the reward. 



XI. 
LIDDON, BERSIER, SPURGEON. 

"And Samuel died, and all the Israelites were gathered to- 
gether and lamented him." — i Samuel xxv. i. 

THE book that records the lives of the regnant men 
of the world, the men that I choose to call the kingly 
men of the world — not because of their rank or heredi- 
tary power or riches, but the kingly men of the world 
because of the services they have rendered to their race, 
services patiently, untiringly and sometimes heroically 
rendered — does not contain a biography more beautiful 
than that of Samuel, the prophet and priest of the Lord. 
While he was yet a little boy his mother brought him 
to good old Eli as he ministered in the sanctuary, and she 
said, "I have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth." 
That dedication on the part of his mother was followed 
by an audible call from Jehovah himself. In the stillness 
of the night, before the last lamp had been extinguished 
in the temple, the little child heard the voice calling him, 
and his response was, "Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth." 
Samuel hastened to fulfil the vow which his mother had 
made on his behalf by his own personal consecration. 
Oh ! what an auspicious beginning, what a .calm and 
beautiful life followed that beginning. No stain rests 
upon the record of Samuel's piety. After long years 
spent in the service of the God of his boyhood, he died in 
peace, and all Israel gathered together, and made great 
lamentation over him. Noble life, peaceful death, blessed 
memory ! It was a morning without a cloud ; his youth- 



136 SERMONS. 

ful piety was the bright and morning star that dawned 
before the sun arose, and when that sun went down in 
peace and splendor it left an afterglow behind it, the 
trailing glory that still lights up the skies. 

When a private citizen dies, if he is a truly good man, 
his loss is bewailed, first in the family, in which a light 
has been extinguished no more to be relumed on earth; 
and the loss is one that is deplored, too, in the community, 
by his neighbors and acquaintances. When a man of 
prayer is taken away, a man whose example and whose 
consistent living was a guide and blessing to others, then 
the entire community laments the loss. Just in proportion 
to the eminence of a man's position, just in proportion to 
the wideness of the influence which he exerts, if that 
influence is a beneficent one, and his elevation is one that 
Providence has caused for wise and good purposes, there 
are many families and many communities bereaved. It is 
no longer like the narrow circle of mourners when the 
private citizen goes, but it is a circle which widens until 
it takes in a state, an empire — until it takes in, it may be, 
Christendom. 

We are told that not many mighty and not many noble 
are called into the kingdom of the Lord. This assertion 
refers to men of noble birth according to human grada- 
tion of rank, and to men of might according to the world's 
estimate of might. There is no might like consecrated 
genius. There is no nobility like spiritual excellence, 
there is no power like goodness in the world. We have 
reason, my friends, to be very thankful that, when esti- 
mated by this test, the church of God has been blessed in 
all generations with the truly mighty and the truly noble 
from the days of Origen and Cyprian, Justin Martyr and 
Tertulian, Chrysostom and Athanasius, Augustine and 
Luther, Melancthon and Zwingle, Calvin and Knox, Ba- 



LIDDON, BERSIER, SPURGEON. 137 

con and Milton, Whitefield and Chalmers, and Liddon, 
Spurgeon, and Jonathan Edwards. I do not know of any 
men in history that deserve the title of "noble and 
mighty" as do these men, splendidly endowed by nature, 
with all their powers strengthened and developed by 
learning, and consecrated to the service of God and the 
highest interests of humanity. There are some men 
whose endowments are such, whose natural and acquired 
gifts are such that they are compelled to occupy stations 
of great eminence. Their own humility, perhaps, would 
induce them to prefer obscurity, but those who recog- 
nize their capacity for usefulness will not permit them 
to remain in obscure stations, and when once raised to 
elevated positions, they are never allowed to abandon 
their posts. They stand the acknowledged leaders in the 
state, lights and landmarks of the church, and the pillars 
in the great temple that God is erecting on this earth to 
the glory of his grace. 

When such men are called away, the people feel and 
recognize the great chasm, the great blank that has been 
made. When those who have left their impress upon 
their generation are called away, then the involuntary 
testimony of the bereaved people is, "A great man and a 
prince is fallen in Israel !" 

The regrets when eminent and good men die are never 
confined to the particular church in which they were 
reared and to which they ministered, and the reason is 
that the church — I am speaking now of the whole com- 
pany of the redeemed on earth, those whose lives are 
united by faith in Jesus Christ — knows no geographical 
boundaries. It is not so with the earth. Either by 
natural or artificial lines states are marked off, with some- 
times mountains or rivers for their boundaries. We are 
told that, "Mountains interposed make enemies of na- 



138 SERMONS. 

tions," to the infinite folly, the unutterable folly and 
misery of mankind. The people that live on one side of a 
mountain slope are filled with bitter hostility to those who 
live on the other side of the mountain slope, and so we are 
told by the bard that ''Mountains interposed make 
enemies of nations." There are no such geographical 
divisions in the church of God. It constitutes one 
brotherhood, one community of sympathy and of common 
interests. Therefore, when a great missionary, for in- 
stance, is suddenly taken away, a man like Martyn, or 
Cary, or Moffat, that death is first bewailed by the heathen 
converts that have been brought out from the darkness in 
which they were born to the light into which they were 
reborn, but the mourning that begins in that little circle 
of converted pagans spreads widely, and the tidings of 
that death touch a sympathetic cord throughout all 
Christendom, and the church feels that it has sustained a 
common loss. 

I do not remember any period in which the church has 
sustained heavier bereavements than it has during the last 
three or four years ; and it is well, my friends, when 
these events occur, that we should commemorate them, 
because such tributes are due to the men themselves. 
And then the taking away of such men, if we only knew 
it, marks great epochs in the history of the church. More- 
over, it is a sweet duty to gather up and perpetuate the 
things that made them deservedly honored and dear to 
the communities in which they lived and labored. When 
we treasure up these things and transmit them, we hand 
down what becomes a precious legacy to the coming 
generation. 

First, I will mention in this list of eminent lamented 
the name of William Perry Liddon, a man whose repu- 
tation is world-wide among scholars, but, for reasons I 



LIDDON, BERSIER, SPURGEON. 139 

may presently mention, he was not so popularly known. 
His is not a familiar name nor a familiar history to the 
great multitude, even of intelligent and reading people. 
Canon Liddon was such a man as only a country like 
England can produce, such a product as can only come 
from one of its cloistered universities with a long classical 
training, beginning in childhood and continuing for 
fifteen or twenty consecutive years in the great schools 
and colleges, finally in the universities and afterwards in 
the fellowships that are bestowed upon the eminent schol- 
ars who live as celibates in those universities, without 
ever marrying, as was the case with Canon Liddon. It 
was a rare and beautiful cultivation which he possessed. 
It was a great and splendid scholarship which he mas- 
tered, yet being destitute, to a large extent, of those 
popular elements which touch the imagination of the 
masses and arouse their enthusiasm, it so happened that 
he was better known to scholars and reading men than 
to the world at large ; and yet his is a name that deserves 
perpetuation among those who have served their genera- 
tion. I suppose Canon Liddon is better known by his 
Bampton Lectures than by any other of his works. Those 
Bampton Lectures which he delivered are believed to 
contain the completest and most satisfactory vindication 
of the divinity of Christ in the English language. That 
is a great thing to say. It was the delivery and publica- 
tion of the Bampton Lectures that laid the firm founda- 
tion of his fame. After that he became one of the preach- 
ers in the University of Oxford, and there he had just 
the kind of an audience that suited a man of his genius 
and training. It was a very limited audience as to num- 
bers, but, my friends, you must not underrate its import- 
ance on that account. Whenever Liddon preached, he 
preached to the educated men whose influence was ulti- 



140 SERMONS. 

mately to be felt all over Britain. And the man who can 
control the thought and shape the principles of the 
educated, is the man who takes hold most effectually of 
his generation. 

In the discourses which Liddon delivered in the Uni- 
versity he weighed one thing very carefully. I do not 
suppose there has been a man in the last fifty years who 
has studied what I might call "the spirit of the age" more 
closely* and intelligently than he did. I mean by that, par- 
ticularly, that he studied all the phases of doubt, all the 
shades and forms of skepticism to which cultivated men 
and scholars were peculiarly liable; not the popular ob- 
jections of the rabble and crowd, but those refined and 
subtle difficulties which oftentimes are aroused in the 
minds of the most cultivated men. He watched all that 
with the most assiduous care, and the sermons that he 
delivered, entitled, "University Sermons," are discourses 
adapted to that class of men, and in the day in which we 
live, perhaps, they have done as much as almost any other 
sermons which have been delivered to scatter the doubts 
of scholarly skeptics. 

Another great portion of the life of Canon Liddon, 
of his active public life, was when he became a preacher 
in St. Paul's Cathedral. There he was perpetually handi- 
capped. A cathedral is something made for show. It is 
a great structure elevated above all the surrounding build- 
ings to remind people of worship. It is a kind of archi- 
tectural tribute to religion. So far so good, but there can 
be nothing worse in its adaptation for public service, such 
as prayer, praise and preaching, than a great cathedral. 
It was very painful to sit near Canon Liddon as he 
preached in St. Paul's Cathedral. Every muscle of his 
body was put to the utmost tension. His countenance 
was oftentimes distorted, and every one could see that he 



LIDDON, BERSIER, SPURGEON. 141 

was watching to ascertain, if possible, whether his words 
reached the limit of the great assembly. It was one per- 
petual strain, from the beginning to the end of his dis- 
course, to make himself heard. There he stood in his 
little pulpit, with a massive dome, like the dome of the 
sky, above him, with his voice interrupted by the imperti- 
nence of hundreds of arches, columns and pillars. I re- 
member one Sunday afternoon, when I had gotten a po- 
sition not very far from the pulpit from which he deliv- 
ered his sermon, I was deeply interested when he took 
his text, because it was a very difficult text, and one upon 
which I wanted to hear his opinion. I never listened 
more attentively, and never had a greater disappointment. 
When the sermon was one-third through I ceased even to 
try to hear him, and there was one strange thing I no- 
ticed. It was that diminishing echo that could be heard 
through all the chapels, through all the aisles of that great 
edifice — a diminuendo note. After the preacher had 
sounded the word, you would hear it repeated, fainter 
and fainter, until the echo died away ; and the confusion 
of sounds rendered it impossible to hear the sermon, 
although articulately delivered. Such was the man, and 
such were the labors of the man. He puts us out of sym- 
pathy with him when we remember his intense ecclesiasti- 
cism; indeed, he would have cut himself off from the 
sympathy of the whole dissenting Christian world by his 
intense ecclesiasticism if it had not been that he was one 
of the most evangelical of preachers. He loved Jesus 
Christ, and notwithstanding the churchism that was made 
so prominent in his discourses, there was breathed 
through them, from end to end, a devotion to the glory 
of the Lord, and tender love for the souls of men. That 
makes his memory, after all, a precious memory to the 
whole church. 



i 4 2 SERMONS. 

Among the bright, genial and loving men that the 
Church of England has produced, there was no one that 
was more distinguished for these characteristics than 
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. He was one of the favorite 
pupils of Arnold of Rugby, and some of the most beauti- 
ful tributes that a great master ever paid to the virtues of 
a boy, while at school, were the letters that Arnold wrote 
to Stanley's mother while he was still at Rugby. From 
that school he went to the University of Oxford, where 
he soon took a very high position, and where, as soon as 
he took holy orders, he became a member of the circle 
such as few were ever admitted to even in England. He 
was a great personal favorite of the Queen. He had the 
entree at any time to whatever palace at which she hap- 
pened to be residing. Notwithstanding the fact that he 
had such a social position as this, in all probability there 
was not a man in Great Britain who was simpler in man- 
ers, plainer in dress, more entirely natural and more truly 
unaffected, more ready to converse with the humblest and 
the poorest, with whom he might be cast. During his 
visit to this country I had a most interesting opportunity 
of knowing the man. I had just returned from England 
myself, and when introduced to him, some one mentioned 
that fact. He said, "When you were in London, whom 
did you hear preach ?" I said, "The last person I heard 
preach in London was Dean Stanley." He had just 
crossed the ocean himself, and we made the voyage at the 
same time, but on different vessels. Said he, "Why did 
you not come up at the conclusion of the service and 
introduce yourself to me?" "Oh!" I said, "there are 
many reasons why a stranger would not do that." "Well," 
said he, "the next time you come to London, if you will 
give me the opportunity, I will show you something that 
no one else in England can show you, that is Westmin- 



LIDDON, BERSIER, SPURGEON. 143 

ster Abbey." That sounds strange, doesn't it? Why, I 
had been going to Westminster Abbey for twenty-five or 
thirty years. I once spent two weeks in the hotel directly 
opposite the Abbey, that I might go into it once or twice 
every day; but when Dean Stanley said, "I will show you 
Westminster Abbey," I well knew what he meant, and 
what a great promise and treat were shadowed by that 
invitation. Those of you who have seen the two splendid, 
illustrated volumes written by Stanley with regard to the 
Abbey, have some conception of what an honor and 
privilege it would be to have such a guide through that 
most historic building of the world ; a man who knew 
every tomb and every shrine, and who knew the history 
of every illustrious man whose dust sleeps within those 
walls. I accepted the invitation ; but I do not know of 
anything that ever gave me a much deeper impression of 
the vanity of all human expectations than what I am 
going to tell you. It so happened that I returned to 
England the very next summer. A few months after this 
interview I went to Westminster Abbey, but I went alone, 
and you may imagine my feelings when, as I walked 
alone through the Abbey (it so happened that there was 
no one in sight just then), I stopped suddenly over a new 
flagstone in the pavement, and on that stone was engraved 
"Arthur Penrhyn Stanley." The man that had offered 
to conduct me through that building was sleeping uncon- 
scious of all the crowds that walked over his silent dust ! 
I have not time this afternoon to speak of Rev. Prof. 
Theodore Christlieb, of Bonn ; I wish I had. But let us 
cross the Channel, and enter a church in Paris, a church 
not in the fashionable quarter of the city either, and there 
we will find standing in the pulpit Eugene Bersier, a man 
of noble stature, a man who gave an intimation to the 
world in his very countenance and demeanor of every- 



144 SERMONS. 

thing that is refined and noble in the human character. 
A silver halo crowned his head, although he was not fifty 
years of age. He was a man of benevolent aspect, and 
wonderful geniality and grace. 

L'Eglise Evangelique was the church in which he 
ministered, and there I heard him deliver a funeral dis- 
course in French. He was a member with me of the great 
Council of Reformed Churches, which met two years 
ago in the city of London. There I had the opportunity 
of hearing Bersier speak, and one evening, to my great 
delight, I was the guest of a gentleman, and Bersier was 
the only other guest besides myself. There we spent a 
delightful evening together. 

Eugene Bersier, of all the modern preachers that 
France has produced, comes nearer to the great trium- 
virate that flourished in the days of Louis XIV. ; next 
to Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Massillon. Bersier comes in 
fourth. For splendor of genius, for beauty of diction, 
for sweet sympathy, and for all the charities of the gospel 
of Christ, there was no man of his day that transcended 
him. My friends, it is one of the saddest of all thoughts 
that a man who seemed, by the very constitution which 
God had given him, destined to live a long life of con- 
tinuous labor, perhaps until after three-score years and 
ten, should have been stricken down in the very flower 
and glory of his vigorous manhood. If in any of the 
book stores which you chance to visit, you see a volume 
of sermons with the name of Eugene Bersier upon them, 
you cannot do better than to add them to your library. 

It was a great loss to our struggling Presbyterian 
Church in France when Bersier died. We do not know 
how sufficiently to deplore these losses. Here I am going 
to say a word or two — not of a controversial character, 
but as somewhat of a contradiction to a very common 



LIDDON, BERSIER, SPURGEON. 145 

impression, and a very common remark that is made. 
You frequently hear such statements as, "The workman 
dies, but the work goes on." My friends, the workman 
dies, and I know that God, in his sovereignty, can carry 
on his work by any agencies that he pleases, and it is 
true that, in the long run, the work will go on. It is true 
in the sense that the truth will finally triumph and prevail, 
but it is not true in the ordinary acceptation, that when 
"The workman dies the work goes on." The death of the 
workman often arrests temporarily the work itself, and 
puts it back. There are some men who die, and whose 
places are not filled for generations to come. No man 
has taken the place of Thomas Chalmers in Scotland. No 
man has taken the place of Bersier in France, and, were 
it proper, I could mention the names of men that have 
been lost, not only from our own denomination, but from 
others in the United States, whose places have not been 
supplied. When you hear that the work goes on, you 
hear half the truth. The work does ultimately go on, but 
oftentimes it is in the church just as it is in the state. 
You know the death of a great statesman oftentimes 
arrests a vast movement that would have been accom- 
plished for the good of the whole land, but for his taking 
off. You know very well that the sudden and unexpected 
death of a great general of an army makes victory impos- 
sible, in the history of that people, for all time. So that 
it is not worth while to say that such a man is not a 
national or world-wide loss. The man is missed, and it 
is a great while before another man comes that has any 
tendency to take up the work and exert the power which 
he wielded. Only think of what was the result when the 
great Huguenot leaders in France fell in their struggle 
for the liberty which they did not get. That was an 
instance in which the truth was mighty, and did not 
10 



146 SERMONS. 

prevail. It was crushed beneath the iron heel of tyranny ! 
There were at least a dozen attempts at a reformation 
before Luther was born, and every one of these attempts 
was put down. Some of the noblest reformers that ever 
lived, when they were taken away, had no successors. 
Before they died they did their whole work, but they 
were arrested in their career and silenced forever. Huss 
was put down, as were also many other noble reformers ; 
and after Luther, the persecutions suffered by the church 
in various parts of the world arrested the progress of 
the Reformation ; and, therefore, it is true that in the 
end God means that his church shall be victorious, but I 
assure you that the loss of individual and particular men 
is often a calamity far greater than it is ordinarily recog- 
nized. Now when I look abroad, I see no men who have 
the rank and the capacity for usefulness like the men that 
I have named this evening. I could have named others 
like Christlieb in the University of Bonn, Bersier in Paris, 
like Canon Liddon, like the Bishop of Peterboro (Dr. 
^y^dL&s^ "* — -MrGee), who has lately died. These are some of the 
losses which all Christendom deplores with a common 
grief. 

One of the greatest lessons that I want to derive from 
this discourse, and one of the greatest truths that I want 
to impress is this, that there ought to be a very earnest 
looking for a different class of men from many of those 
who are coming upon the stage now, and we ought to be 
praying that God will raise up men of great endowments, 
of splendid gifts and large scholarship, and devoted con- 
secration to his cause; men qualified to become the 
leaders of the great sacramental army for the conquest of 
the world. There never was a time perhaps when there 
were as many mediocre men as there are now, men who 
do not attain, and who have no prospect of attaining to 



LIDDON, BERSIER, SPURGEON. 147 

that learning which makes the leader in the church, and 
which makes the whole church to rejoice that God has 
honored such men with such powers. That is the great 
want of the day in which we live. 

I have often had occasion to remark that I regarded 
Spurgeon as the most widely useful man living, the 
greatest power for good in Great Britain, and now that 
he has been removed from his great sphere, if I were to 
say that he is lamented by all to whom he was known and 
honored, it would only be another way of saying that he 
was lamented throughout all Christian lands ; for where 
was he not known, and where was he not honored ? That 
this is not an extravagant estimate I think will be evident 
when we consider into how many departments of useful 
labor he was permitted to enter and manifest the greatest 
efficiency and success. He was one of the few men of 
whom biography gives us any account, who was able to 
maintain his popularity from year to year without abate- 
ment. His was a popularity which, so far from weaken- 
ing, grew and advanced with successive years. There 
never was a time perhaps when there was more origi- 
nality, more freshness and power, more that makes a 
sermon rich and good, than during the last years of his 
life. It is not extravagant to say that he was the greatest 
power for good in Great Britain, when we remember that 
his church, or tabernacle, on the Surry side of the 
Thames, had in it six thousand sittings, and it often held 
a larger number of people than that, for many could not 
get seats, and were obliged to stand ; when we remember 
also that these sermons, every one of them, was reported 
and published that very week ; when we remember that 
sixty volumes of sermons were issued during his life; 
when we remember that they were read, not only through- 
out Great Britain, but through Australia, Canada, the 



148 SERMONS. 

United States, West Indies, and wherever the English 
language is spoken — when we remember, again, that 
they were translated into a number of modern tongues, 
and thus went all over the reading world. That was but 
one of the departments of his great life work ; and, there- 
fore, it is not an extravagant statement that was made 
by my nearest ecclesiastical neighbor, my brother of the 
Second Baptist Church, in an article which he published 
in the Religious Herald, in which he stated that, "Eng- 
land was but the platform on which Spurgeon's pulpit 
stood, and his audience was the world around." I have 
read many noble tributes to the memory of Mr. Spurgeon. 
I have read none finer than the one to which I refer by 
my Baptist brother. 

But this was only one avenue of his access to the peo- 
ple. Look at the great orphanages which he founded, and 
which he found the means also of maintaining. Hun- 
dreds and hundreds of poor, degraded and destitute 
children were taken from positions where they would 
have died in vice and squalor, and trained them to occupy 
places of usefulness and respectability in the world. Then 
remember that theological school which has, I believe, 
seventy or eighty students every year, young men whom 
he has sent out, with the impress of his own example and 
spirit upon them, to preach the gospel, as far as in them 
lay, just as he preached it. When we remember these 
things, we have some idea of the channels through which 
he reached the great outside world. I do not know of any 
history more instructive in another aspect than his. It 
shows how a man with the courage of his convictions, 
how a man who is intensely loyal to the truth, and fears 
nothing but what is wrong, will at last triumph over all 
opposition. Very few men have lived in England that 
were subjected to the ridicule and misrepresentation Mr. 



LIDDON, BERSIER, SPURGEON. 149 

Spurgeon was during the early years of his ministry. 
Hundreds of stories were invented reflecting upon his 
manners, reflecting upon him in every way, and yet he 
pursued the even tenor of his way without even a mur- 
mur, with his bright, genial spirit unchilled by the abuse 
that was heaped upon him. He went on quietly, with the 
pluck and perseverance that characterized him, until the 
time came that he won over to himself all the parties in 
England, and not only all the parties, but all the different 
classes of society. The upper class, that at one time 
scorned him, recognized his worth at last. Men in the 
highest positions, in Parliament, and men of great learn- 
ing recognized his virtues, and the great indebtedness 
Great Britain owed him, and acknowledged it in their 
public letters. He won, not only the regard of all classes, 
but the regard of all sects, which was a great triumph in 
a country like England, and perhaps no man has ever 
lived who has done more to bring all the people in har- 
mony with one another, and promote good fellowship 
and kind Christian regard among the different denomina- 
tions than he. It was his joy to know before his death, 
by the public testimony of the most eminent men in Great 
Britain, how he was esteemed by the men most qualified 
to speak on such subjects, both in the church and in the 
state. 

I have, of course, my friends, been compelled to make 
this discourse much longer than I usually make my Sun- 
day afternoon sermons, and I have protracted it more 
than I intended, such is the richness of the theme. You 
will see that I have tried to condense, as I went along, in 
order to compress into the limits of the discourse what 
I had to say in connection with those to whom I have 
called your attention this evening. 

There are one or two other facts in regard to this 



150 SERMONS. 

man's great usefulness in the world. It is sometimes said 
that Calvinism is dying out, that the world is abjuring 
Calvinism. My friends, I do not care to defend Calvinism 
this evening, because that is not my object or my present 
purpose. I want to say that the most popular preacher in 
the world was the most pronounced Calvinist in the 
world! No man has preached to as many people in the 
last twenty-five years as Charles Spurgeon. No man who 
ever lived during all the ages, during all the centuries has, 
during his life-time, come into contact with as many of 
his fellow-men on religious themes as Spurgeon; and, 
during all that time, he has not preached a sermon per- 
haps in which Calvinism was not the fibre and the spirit 
of the discourse. Don't tell me that Calvinism is becom- 
ing unpopular, when the man who could draw more 
people than any other man on earth was sure to deliver a 
Calvinistic discourse. When a conceited young theo- 
logical candidate once made a disparaging remark about 
Spurgeon to a distinguished prelate in the English 
Church, he said, "Stop, young man; there are eminent 
men in Great Britain, but the only man in England that 
can get an audience, if he choose, of thirty thousand 
people, in twenty-four hours, is Spurgeon." 

Then, another thing that deserves our attention is this. 
Such was his loyalty to the truth that he would sacrifice 
friends for it if need be. There never was a man more 
affectionate or loyal to his friends, but if need be, he 
would sacrifice friends before he would sacrifice a prin- 
ciple. That is a very rare thing in this world. He with- 
drew from the Baptist Union, three or four years ago, 
and in making the separation he parted from some of the 
most intimate friends of his youth and manhood. Inas- 
much as he thought they held erroneous views, especially 
with regard to the divinity of our Lord, that was some- 



LIDDON, BERSIER, SPURGEON. 151 

thing he could not brook; and therefore, while he never 
lost his respect or regard for them as men, yet ecclesiasti- 
cally there was a separation. 

It so happens that I have spent more time in London 
than in any city in the world except Richmond. There is 
no city that I know as well. Three months, at one time in 
my life, I did not go out of the city, and for thirty years 
I have availed myself of every opportunity that I could 
get of hearing Mr. Spurgeon preach. I have heard him 
oftener than any man south of the Potomac, and I think, 
therefore, that I have had some opportunity to judge and 
some opportunity to speak with the confidence that I have 
spoken with regard to this man. And strange to say, 
during all these years, I never sought to make his ac- 
quaintance, though I had hundreds of opportunities for 
so doing. The sole reason was that I did not want to 
encroach upon that time, for every moment of which I 
knew he had imperative use. The only interview that I 
ever had with him happened on this wise. I was at his 
church one Sunday, when he gave notice that immediately 
after the service the sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
would be administered. You are aware that although he 
belonged to the Baptist Church, he was in favor of open 
communion, and on that occasion he gave an invitation 
that was so tender, to all Christians of all denominations 
that might be present, to unite in celebrating the sacra- 
ment, that I remained. When the service was over, as I 
was going out, and was passing down the aisle, I went 
within five or six feet of where he was sitting in a chair 
on the platform, and I went up and said, "Mr. Spurgeon, 
I have been a hearer of yours for thirty years, and I now 
embrace this opportunity of introducing myself, and of 
giving you my best wishes." He asked me my name, and 
his reception was so kind and so affectionate that I have 



152 SERMONS. 

often regretted since that I did not avail myself of the 
many opportunities I had of knowing him personally. 

I will never forget the first time I entered his church 
any more than I can forget the last, which is the time of 
which I have just spoken. The first time I visited his 
church, it so happened that I arrived a little late. Every 
seat was taken on the lower floor, as well as every seat in 
the first gallery. There are two galleries, one above the 
other. I went into the upper gallery, and succeeded in 
finding a seat at the farthest point that I could have been 
(almost in the roof of the house) from the preacher on 
the rostrum. He had not been preaching more than ten 
or fifteen minutes before I heard a stifled sigh or sob 
from the man who sat next to me. I had not noticed this 
man before in the great crowd, but I looked at him, and 
he seemed like a man whose business was in some menial 
occupation, dressed in his Sunday clothes. He was coarse 
and vulgar looking, with very hard features ; but the tears 
were streaming down his cheeks. He was quivering with 
emotion, and I said to myself, "If Mr. Spurgeon, standing 
at that vast distance, can so preach the gospel in its rich- 
ness and sweetness as to cause every fibre in that man's 
heart to vibrate, then he is preaching right, and that man 
is my brother in Christ Jesus," and I felt like taking him 
by the hand, and telling him so. 

Such is the man who has been taken away from us. If 
we regret that we did not avail ourselves of the opportu- 
nities we had of knowing personally the good and great 
that have lived to bless their generation, there is one com- 
pensation and one anticipation — in the long hereafter 
there will be time enough. In the world of recognition, 
in the world of reunion, in the world of holy fellowship, 
in the eternal future, there will be time enough to make 
the intimacies of an innumerable multitude of those who 



LIDDON, BERSIER, SPURGEON. 153 

have so lived in this world as to bless their generations, 
and then gone home to the rest and recompenses of the 
eternal kingdom, into which kingdom and rest and joy 
may the Lord, in his infinite mercy, bring every one of us 
at the last, for his dear Son's sake. Amen ! 



XII. 
"MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN." 

"There came then his brethren and his mother, and standing 
without, sent unto him, calling him. 

"And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, 
Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. 

"And he answered them saying, Who is my mother, or my 
brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about 
him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren. For whoso- 
ever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my 
sister, and mother." — Mark iii. 31-35. 

[" T deserves our attention that this most impressive 
■*■ incident in the life of our Lord is mentioned by three 
of the evangelists. The account given by each is sub- 
stantially the same ; the slight variations add to the inter- 
est of the narrative. Matthew says that when the in- 
formation came to him that his mother and brethren were 
standing without seeking for him, that he stretched out 
his hands towards the disciples, and said, "Behold my 
brethren." Doubtless, by that gesture he intended to 
include not only the twelve disciples, but all that were 
present who loved him. Mark says in his narrative, that 
our Lord declared whosoever did the will of God would 
sustain the closest and most intimate of relationships 
with him; but Matthew says, "Whosoever shall do the 
will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my 
mother, and sister, and brother." Mark is always concise, 
and never amplifies ; and, therefore, he simply says, 
<( God," while Matthew says, "My Father which is in 
heaven." And Matthew alone says that all this took place 



"MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN." 155 

while our Lord was talking with the people; and that 
gives us an idea of the manner of Christ's preaching. 
Perhaps there was an element in it that should be more 
observed and imitated at the present time: Christ spoke 
in a conversational way, a more familiar address than the 
stately style of the pulpit in the days in which we live ; 
and it was a manner better calculated, perhaps, to arouse 
the attention and impress the minds and hearts of those 
to whom he spoke — a more loud, vociferous style of 
speaking came to the puipit afterward. He was "taiking ' 
to the people when the message came, when he made a 
new revelation of the relations he sustained towards all 
that believe on him, when he declared that all that did 
his Father's will were his brethren, his sisters, and his 
mother. 

"When our Lord was informed that his mother was 
standing without, unable to get into the apartment where 
he was because of the multitude that filled it, he said, 
"Who is my mother?" Do you detect in that any tone of 
disregard or disrespect? If you do, you mistake the tone. 
Our Lord does not dishonor, he does not disparage his 
mother or his earthly relationships; his object is not to 
do that, but to exalt those relationships which are highest 
and most sacred and most endearing. Least of all would 
our Lord say anything or intimate anything that would 
lessen our reverence for the family relationship. Of all 
persons who ever spoke, he would be the last to take down 
that which the providence and Word of God has endeav- 
ored to build up. This Word teaches us that the very 
first of all relationships formed between immortal beings 
in this world was the family relationship. It is a tie 
that has survived all the revolutions of time throughout 
all the centuries ; whatever else of organization has per- 
ished, it has survived. For a long time, for centuries in 



156 SERMONS. 

the history of this world, the solitary tie that bound men 
together in any system of order and harmony was the 
family tie. During all the lives of the patriarchs it was 
the family institution that ruled the world — before the 
tribal was known, or the national had been conceived of. 
The family relation is one that exists, not only through- 
out all the centuries, but in all the lands, in all the nations 
of the world, in all the forms of government known to 
men — it matters not whether it be the democratic, the 
aristocratic, or the monarchical — it matters not, there the 
family is ; and in all those great revolutions that have 
come, when war has come and shaken down great em- 
pires, then the family relation was the first to reorganize 
and bring back the order which was lost by revolution and 
rapine. These words must not be taken to indicate the 
slightest disregard, on the part of our Lord, of the ties 
of natural affection. His address to John was, "Behold 
thy mother!" 

In the interpretation of this passage we must never 
forget — in fact, it is a key to the understanding of all 
of it — we must never forget that our Lord assumed the 
family kindred in order that he might establish that 
higher and nobler relationship that belongs to the uni- 
versal church of God, in all the world, and in all the ages 
of the world. The only reason why Christ had a mother 
was that he might take upon him our humanity, and be 
the Son of man as well as the Son of God. Unless he had 
become the Son of man, he could not have sympathized 
with us as he did, having passed through all the experi- 
ences of life; had he not been the Son of man he could 
not have sorrowed in the garden, he could not have bled 
and died upon the cross. And he became the Son of 
Mary in order that he might be the Saviour of the world. 
And when he came with joy to fulfil the Father's will, 



"MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN." 157 

he cried out, "In the volume of the book it is written of 
me, I have come to do the will of God, who had a body 
prepared for me." It was because God had provided for 
him, prepared for him this humanity, that he became the 
dear and tender and loving Saviour, in whom we trust, 
and to whom we can go for comfort in all our sorrows. 
Our Lord took this sacred relationship in order to illus- 
trate a kinship that was nobler, that was more spiritual, 
that was to be eternal. And this was in accordance with 
all Christ's teaching and his preaching all through his 
life — he invariably took the lower, whatever it might 
be, in order to illustrate and enforce the higher. That 
was always the tendency of our Lord's mind and heart — 
to glance upward from the terrene and perishable to the 
celestial and eternal ; therefore, everything that he saw 
here upon earth about which he spoke furnished him with 
a theme that was higher and nobler than that upon which 
he at first began to speak. We see it in the parables of 
Christ, when he took earthly things to illustrate the 
heavenly. And that was not simply because Christ saw 
in earthly things objects that were more suitable as 
illustrations ; it was not because he saw a fitness, an 
analogy between earthly and heavenly things, but because 
earthly things were made at first for the purpose of fur- 
nishing these illustrations of heavenly truth. I believe 
that when God made the world he made it that all the 
world might be a great hieroglyphic in which people 
might read greater truths than those that relate merely to 
our earthly history. When you look out this morning, 
and behold the splendor of the sun in the blue heavens, 
you need not imagine that God put it there simply to 
illumine the earth ; it stands as an emblem of the Sun of 
Righteousness, whose light not only enables men every- 
where to see, but of that celestial light that kindles the 



158 SERMONS. 

souls of men, and prepares men for the higher worship 
of the skies. There is no element so universal as water. 
Down in the deep chambers of the earth, in great un- 
opened caverns, in the springs that gush from the hill- 
sides, in the artesian wells which men dig with infinite 
toil and patience, in the clouds that float over the earth, 
and distil the early and the latter rain — all are illustra- 
tions of the boundlessness of God's salvation. There- 
fore, that which is most universal in its use is taken for 
the type of that salvation which is offered to all who will 
accept it. Never was there a better illustration of what 
Christ has done, and is doing, than when he said, "If any 
man thirst" — and there is no one who does not — "let 
him come unto me and drink." 

And so we now find Christ taking the family relation- 
ship, with all its tender associations, in order to remind 
us of that other family that constitutes the true church 
of God in the world, that other family that is separated 
and distinguished by the solitary test of the true church 
which is mentioned in this chapter — that its members 
are those who do the will of their Father which is in 
heaven. That is the great principle that the text reveals 
to us. We are taught here what is the foundation upon 
which the church rests ; we are taught here what is the 
principle of unity that binds God's people together, what 
is the tie that shall survive even the stroke of death. 
And what are those happy, sanctifying relationships that 
shall survive the stroke of death, and have a resurrection 
beyond the grave, and spring up beautiful and immortal 
in the paradise of God? "If any man will do my will, 
he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God. If 
any man will do my will, the will of my Father which is 
in heaven, he instantly is related to me by a kindred tie 
stronger than that that exists between brothers and sis- 



"MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN." 159 

ters, and children and parents, in the family. "Whoso- 
ever will do the will of my Father in heaven, the same is 
my sister, and brother, and mother." 

What mistaken ideas some men have of the will of 
God ! The moment the will of God is mentioned, the 
natural mind shrinks back as the sensitive plant does 
when approached by the finger. "The will of God" — as 
if there was something tyrannical in it, something arbi- 
trary, something calculated to abridge human happiness, 
human freedom ; whereas the will of God simply means 
the harmony of the universe; the will of God is always 
right, always just; and not only so, the will of God is 
always love. Whoever is brought into conformity with 
the will of God is brought into that which preserves the 
harmony and secures the happiness of all, for all are truly 
happy just as they become absorbed in the passionate 
desire to do the will of God. 

When we talk about doing the will of God, this means, 
first, that affectionateness of disposition which character- 
izes the adopted children of God. "I call you not ser- 
vants, but friends ; for the servant knoweth not what the 
master doeth, but I have made known to you my wishes 
and my designs, and I have kept nothing back from you 
that you can comprehend and that you ought to know." 
And, therefore, when God bestows upon men that won- 
drous gift, the grace of adoption, immediately there 
springs up in the regenerate soul that passionate desire 
to be brought into perfect harmony and conformity with 
the will of God. It means affectionateness in our service ; 
it means an answer, an echo, to what our Lord himself 
said when he declared, "I delight to do thy will, O God." 

And those who feel that way about it do not pick and 
choose among the commandments. It is an impartial 
obedience; and yet how many there are who fail just 



160 SERMONS. 

there, and flatter themselves that they do the will of God 
because they do the things that are easy and pleasant. 
You must perceive that a voluntary disobedience to any 
of the requirements of the divine will vitiates the whole 
obedience to the rest. There are some that profess great 
reverence to the Ten Commandments, and yet they travel 
on a Sunday, and do secular work on a Sunday, though 
God said, "Remember the Sabbath day." He said it in 
the same tone in which he said, "Thou shalt not steal. 
Thou shalt not kill." If we obey any commandments in a 
way that is acceptable to God, it is because we do it be- 
cause God has required it of us. If I say I am going to 
do God's will, but am going to make an exception this 
time, and do my own will, it is no obedience. I do not 
know where in the Scriptures one can find one intimation 
that the commandment that requires us to remember the 
Sabbath day is any less binding upon us than the com- 
mandments not to kill or steal. It is a link in the great 
chain. If a man, in one of those huge boxes in which 
men descend into the bowels of the earth — if, when 
carrying its cargo of life down into the depths, a man 
should sever one of the links, and say, "I do not want to 
do any damage to these men that are suspended above 
the darkness into which they are descending" — does his 
saying that save them ; does not the severing of one link 
precipitate the living men down to the death below ? So 
the Apostle says that he who breaks one of the command- 
ments breaks all, because he is striking a blow at the 
principle that underlies the whole. If we are going to do 
the will of God, we must do it impartially; and when 
we hear the words, "Thus saith the Lord," we have no- 
thing to do but render a strict and immediate obedience. 
When we talk about conformity to the divine will, it 
is generally something passive, it means simply resigna- 



"MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN." 161 

tion ; and when people say, "Thy will be done," they 
think it means simply, "Keep me from murmuring, and 
do not let me repine or rebel under this sad dispensation." 
This commandment is not a sigh from Gethsemane; it is 
not the wind that wakes the harps that hang upon the 
willows while God's people sit and weep as they remem- 
ber Zion. It includes that, but that does not complete the 
definition of obedience to the divine will. And yet I 
would not pass it over lightly. This submission under 
sorrows and bereavements is a large component part of 
that obedience which God requires and which God ex- 
pects. It is a very difficult thing to say from the heart 
what is so easy to say with the lips, "Thy will be done." 
It is very easy to say, "Thy will be done," when we are 
succeeding in our plans, when we are prospering in our 
worldly callings, when we are happy now, and think we 
are going to be happier presently, and when joy after joy 
arises in endless perspective ! Oh ! yes, nothing is easier 
to say. But when those disappointments come, those 
blasted aspirations ! Sometimes men stake everything on 
the attainment of one object, and when that is lost every- 
thing is lost, and the color goes out of the landscape, and 
the music out of life ; and the greatest triumph of grace 
is when the man, with all his household gods shattered 
around him, cold his desolate hearth, can say, "Thy will 
be done." You have heard of the man who put a weather- 
cock upon one of the buildings near 'his house, and on the 
vane by which he could see the direction of the wind he 
had a motto, and the legend he put upon it was "God is 
love." One of his neighbors said to him, "You have put 
on your weather-vane, 'God is love.' Do you mean that 
God is fickle as the wind?" "Oh! no," he said, "I mean 
by that that whichever way the wind blows, God is love; 
I mean that all winds, from all quarters waft blessings to 
ii 



1 62 SERMONS. 

the trusting soul. God is love just as truly when the rude 
wintry winds blow as when the gentle spring zephyrs fan 
our cheek." And not long after, when the man that put 
the motto there lost the most beloved member of his 
family, the neighbor came and asked him, "How now, my 
friend?" He answered, "I can say now just as heartily as 
before my affliction, 'God is love.' " 

A man came to a prisoner in the days of the persecu- 
tion in Scotland, and he had a basket with a cloth over the 
basket. He took off the cloth, and said, "Mr. Campbell, 
do you recognize this ?" and he took up the head of a fair 
young boy, with beautiful auburn ringlets — a fair young 
boy that had been executed — "Do you know this ?" 
"Yes, I recognize the face of my dear boy," and he added, 
"The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; and blessed 
be the name of the Lord !" 

We have to go to the Old Testament to find some of 
the finest illustrations of faith, and the greatest illustra- 
tion of faith this world ever saw, from the time God made 
it to the time when Christ came to redeem it, was the 
faith exhibited by the patriarch Job, when absolutely 
everything that made life desirable was taken from him, 
and when he said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust 
him." 

But this doing the will of God is not simply submis- 
sion and resignation; it is a willingness that God shall 
direct our future; it is a willingness that God shall be 
our guide in all the time to come — although we prefer 
very much to guide ourselves, we prefer very much to 
choose our own paths ; it is the wish of the natural heart 
to carve out by one's own strength the career that leads 
to success, to stand self-centered, self-sustained, and by 
innate resources to accomplish the design upon which the 
heart is set. Man proposes — but oh ! what a triumph of 



"MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN." 163 

obedience to the divine will when after man proposes and 
God disposes, the man can say, "Well, after all, thy way 
and not my way." Say, as good old Baxter said, "As 
thou wilt, and where thou wilt, and when thou wilt!" 
As, and where, and when, even to the last ! 

Christ is the leader and the commander of the people. 
Well, what is a leader worth if those who are his disciples 
and profess to be loyal to him do not follow him? The 
hymn we sang this morning contained a good expression 
of what ought to be the faith of every child of God with 
regard to the entire future. And if we can lay hold upon 
and grasp that most comprehensive and sweetest of all 
the promises, "All things work together for good to them 
that love God," then we are ready for anything that lies 
in the future, and we are only too glad that God conde- 
scends to be our guide, and we will let him have his way 
with his own. 

Think how much comfort there is in this subject thus 
unfolded in these sayings of our Lord with regard to the 
tie that binds him to his people. We know how much he 
loved his mother; he was constrained by that love to 
submit himself to that mother; he was obedient to that 
mother ; and when he was dying on the cross, he made 
provision for that mother by committing her to the care 
and love of his dearest disciple ; and yet he said, "Who- 
soever will do the will of my Father in heaven, I feel 
towards him as to my mother ; and I use that illustration 
to give you some conception of the strong and tender tie 
that binds my heart to yours, and links my life to yours 
forevermore." 

There are a great many lonely people in this world, 
and not always the old people. Sometimes you find in 
the family a maiden. There devolves upon her the care 
of some relative, sick with a disease impossible to cure, 



164 SERMONS. 

and petulant, never satisfied; and that girl watches and 
nurses and loves with a patience that knows no inter- 
mission. She could have a home of her own, she has been 
besought to link her life with one who could give her a 
happy home; but duty binds her, and there she spends 
her life for one who makes no return. Is she lonely ? No, 
not quite; a voice whispers in her ear, ''Child, thou art 
not alone; I, Jesus Christ, am thy brother." There is 
another lonely person. It is when a mother who is a 
widow loses her only child. She nearly buried her heart 
in the coffin when her husband was lowered into the 
grave, but she still had a prop to lean upon — her manly 
son ; and when he was stricken down — ah ! is there any 
desolation like hers, any loneliness like hers ! It would 
be unbearable but for the fact that one comes into that 
darkened chamber and says, "Mother, let me be your son" 
— and it is Jesus that speaks, it is Christ that says, "Let 
me take the place of your departed boy. I will never 
leave thee, nor forsake thee." 

We get an idea from these Scriptures that the church 
is a much larger organization than we are in the habit of 
thinking it to be. There are a great many people that 
limit their idea of the church by the denomination to 
which they belong, and have little thought and little care 
of what lies outside of the pale to which they belong. 
There is not a visible church on earth that contains all 
the truth, and our Lord recognized that fact, and gave us 
a principle by which we may judge of what the true 
church is ; and how comprehensive that principle is, how 
much it includes ! It includes people of all denominations 
throughout the entire world, the people that do the will 
of God. Do not tell me that any name by which any de- 
nomination is called is so sacred as to demand the ex- 
clusive regard of Jesus Christ ; it includes all throughout 



"MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN." 165 

the world that do the will of the Father who is in heaven. 
Not that denominations are wrong ; on the contrary, it is 
a wise ordinance of providence that the Christian world 
is broken up into denominations — a great many good 
results may come from it ; instead of denominations lead- 
ing to confusion, they ought to lead to harmony, because 
separation oftentimes brings peace. People who agree 
upon a form of government, or a system of doctrine can 
live together as members of one denomination more com- 
fortably than people who have opposing views. There- 
fore, separation leads to peace and harmony, except when 
bigotry steals into the church, when its leaders become 
arrogant and exclusive, and want to domineer over the 
faith of all professed believers throughout the world. It 
is that that fills the church with discord. What a rebuke 
to those who would arrogate to themselves the adoption, 
and the covenants, and the glory — those who believe that 
others who do not believe in the doctrines of their own 
church are outside of the covenants of Christ ; those who 
believe that God may love others enough to save, although 
they do not belong to the same church, yet they take care 
not to recognize them as brethren or give them any ex- 
pression of their love. Intolerance, selfishness, arrogance, 
bigotry ! These are like the wintry frosts of the week 
through which we have been passing, that arrest the 
rivers in their flow, that prevent even a ripple in the great 
lakes, that seal up all the springs that water the earth, 
that arrest the flow of the water, even in the houses, that 
is brought artificially from the reservoirs — that hold 
everything in their icy chain. This is what wounds Christ 
in the homes of his friends. Not the light that comes on 
a day like this, but the warmth that will come a few days 
later. To-day icicles hang from the eaves, long pendants 
from the churches and houses ; but by and by the soft 



166 SERMONS. 

breath of spring will be felt all over the land ; the little 
flowers will show their heads above the ground ; presently 
a voice will be heard, "Lo, the rain is over and gone, the 
winter is past," and the voice of melody is heard through 
the land, and beauty and fertility are all over the land. 
Thus it is when the love of God fills the heart, and men 
feel the bond, not only to those of their own denomina- 
tion, but to all that love the Lord God in sincerity and 
truth. That is the highest and noblest of all affinities. 

So I close by saying that we do not know how many 
relations we have. We belong to a family — it is a very 
distinguished family. People are very proud to be asso- 
ciated with those in whose veins the blood of renowned 
ancestors flow. I do not know of any dignity comparable 
to the dignity of an adopted child of the Lord Almighty. 
"Behold, what manner of love is this, that we should be 
called the children of God ; and, if children, then heirs : 
heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." The 
church is very large, after all ; it is composed now of two 
parts ; we call one the church militant, and one the church 
triumphant, and yet the Lord Jesus is head of the family, 
whether it be in heaven or on earth — 

" The saints on earth, and all the dead, 
But one communion make." 

And when we finish our course, if we have kept the faith, 
then we will become members — not of this struggling, 
discordant church on earth — but we will become mem- 
bers of that great company which no man can number, 
the church of the redeemed and glorified, an immortal 
and rejoicing Saviour reigning over an immortal people: 

" Where the saints of all ages in harmony meet, 
Transported their brethren and Saviour to greet; 
Where the anthems of rapture unceasingly roll, 
And the smile of the Lord is the feast of the soul," 



"MY MOTHER AND MY BRETHREN." 167 

May God bring us to that blessed consummation, and 
make us members at last of that household, where, I trust, 
those households that composed our families will be 
found, without one dear member absent or missing — that 
in society most dear we may spend our eternity in praising 
him who sits on the throne, and in giving the homage of 
our hearts' affection to him that loved us, and gave him- 
self for us, and washed us in his own precious blood, and 
makes us king and priests unto God ! 



XIII. 

KIND WORDS TO A DOUBTING 
HEART. 

"Now when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, he 
sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that 
should come, or look we for another? Jesus answered and said, 
Go show unto John the things which ye did hear and see; the 
blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, 
and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the 
gospel preached unto them." — Matt. xi. 2-5. 

I" DO not ever remember to have spoken an impatient 
■*■ word to a doubter. I have too often fought with that 
beast of Ephesus myself not to have the sincerest sym- 
pathy with those who are troubled with doubts, either 
with regard to the inspiration of these Scriptures, or with 
regard to their acceptance with God. Men in the olden 
time were tormented with devils: doubt is a devil that 
torments men now, and a more unhappy state of being 
can scarcely be conceived of. Doubt continued means 
suspense, and we all know how wearing and trying, what 
an exhausting thing it is to be in suspense — in suspense 
about great, vital interests ; above all things, to be in 
suspense with regard to the soul's future destiny. Even 
with regard to worldly interests suspense is often so 
trying that people say, "Oh ! let me know the worst ; tell 
me at once, and let it be ended — anything rather than 
this intolerable state of suspense !" Doubt upon the sub- 
ject of religion is to be greatly deprecated, because it 
does not help people to the attainment of the great ends 
that should be paramount and supreme. I do not mean 
that it is sinful to doubt ; I do not mean that saintly 
people may not doubt; Asaph doubted, David doubted, 



KIND WORDS TO A DOUBTING HEART. 169 

Isaiah doubted, John the Baptist doubted, and you cannot 
read the biographies of the great and good men of modern 
times without observing how often there were seasons of 
despondency and spiritual depression. It may be that 
these visitations are unavoidable. While there is nothing 
sinful in doubt, there is something sinful in surrendering 
to doubt, in not making every effort to emerge from it 
into the liberty of something assured, something positive, 
something satisfying. 

We may wonder when we see a great, inflexible soul 
like John the Baptist giving way to distrust, and saying, 
"Lord, art thou he that should come, or look we for 
another?" He did not mean that Jesus Christ, the Son 
of God, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the 
world — he did not doubt that he had come ; John was 
not going to retract the noble testimony he had already 
borne to his Christ: but John did not yet comprehend 
the spirit of the Master, and in the midst of the season 
when he pined in the prison and the Lord did not come 
to his relief, did not even send him a message to cheer his 
servant in the terrible environment in which he was 
placed — when John witnessed the slow progress of the 
kingdom of Christ, and Christ's failure, as he thought, 
to take advantage of great opportunities for announcing 
himself publicly as the promised Messiah, and demon- 
strate it by works which no man could dispute, and by 
those triumphs John knew Christ could inaugurate — he 
grew impatient and sent him the message recorded in 
these verses. And then it was that the Master sent him 
the answer. 

The beautiful thing with regard to this whole narra- 
tive is that John went to the right place for the solution 
of his doubt ; although he could not go in person, he sent 
his representatives to Christ with the inquiry that bur- 



170 SERMONS. 

dened his soul, knowing that Christ was the only one in 
all the universe that could give a satisfactory answer to 
that inquiry, and give that rest and confidence to his soul 
which he craved. 

The man may begin in doubt, and be benefited by the 
struggle. Doubt is an exercise when faith conquers it; 
and the man that was shaken before, that lived in a state 
of unstable equilibrium, after the experience through 
which he has passed, finds himself planted more firmly 
than ever upon the imperishable, immovable rock ; but to 
dwell in doubt is to dwell in darkness, and to end in 
despair. 

I gave you this morning, in discussing the inquiry of 
John, some memorable instances of the advantage of a 
strong, assured faith. The biography of the world is not 
enriched, it is impoverished — it is made sadly instruc- 
tive, however — with the histories of the men who did 
live in doubt, and never got beyond. I think in some of 
the old Italian towns you find the greatest solitudes that 
can be found in all the earth. All of our American towns 
are in touch with one another; by railroad communica- 
tions, by telegraph communications, by the constant, rest- 
less movement of the people, they are brought into con- 
stant touch with one another. Some of these old Italian 
towns are like lonely islands away off in the sea, out of 
the track of any vessel and scarcely ever visited. They 
contain old-fashioned houses, dilapidated, and going into 
ruin. And the people lead monotonous, uneventful lives. 
In one of these cities, in the last century, a man by the 
name of Leopardo was born. He was the son of a 
count, who had the advantage of a noble library. He was 
possessed of great genius. In the solitude in which he 
lived he had but one resource. There were no com- 
panions worthy of his regard, he had no intellectual equal 



KIND WORDS TO A DOUBTING HEART. 171 

with whom he could have any pleasant association, and, 
therefore, his one solace was in books, and he mastered 
all the classic literature of antiquity, and read all the old 
classical works that his father's library contained; and 
in the midst of that plenty, that opulence, that the wide, 
exhaustless field of learning afforded, we have the spec- 
tacle of a thirsty soul, famishing for the pabulum of 
something that should nourish. I know of scarcely any- 
thing so sad as the career of that young man of extra- 
ordinary, almost imperial genius. He grew by and by to 
doubt the only form of religion that ever was presented 
to him by the two priests that were his tutors : they could 
not graft the system of ceremonies upon the soul of the 
man that inquired into the reason of things, and could not 
be satisfied with outward forms. The first thing upon 
which he came to any decision was that the church was a 
miserable imposture, an invention of priests for the pur- 
pose of oppressing the multitude ; and this skepticism 
having taken root in his soul, he learned to doubt every- 
thing he looked upon : Nature was a pitiless machine, 
invented by some — not benevolent — power, but some 
mighty power that could construct a vast agency that 
went on its remorseless way, regardless of the suffering 
that it might cause by the execution of its pitiless laws ; 
the heavens above him were brass, and above those brazen 
skies there was not even an autonomy, not even a cos- 
mical God. He distrusted human friendship, he doubted 
woman's love and fidelity; he questioned whether there 
was any such thing as virtue — whether truth was supe- 
rior to error. And so, through the weary years allotted 
to his life, he went on in this sepulchral gloom ; and that 
man always rises before me as the image of what doubt 
will do in blighting a noble soul, and how despondency, 
depression and darkness end in despair and death! 



172 SERMONS. 

" It is not love ; it is not hate, 
That bids me loathe my present state: 
It is that weariness that springs 
From all I hear, from all I see; 
It is that ceaseless, settled gloom 

The fabled Hebrew wanderer bore, 
That will not look beyond the tomb, 

And cannot hope for rest before." 

I do not know whether, in the human language, you 
can find a better definition of a soul in Bunyan's iron cage 
of despair ! Ah ! we have reason to pray for deliverance 
from doubt, when it gets such a lodgment in the souls of 
men, when men sit down and say, "It is no use any longer 
to struggle !" 

The Bible commands us to believe ; but how can we 
believe because we are ordered to do so? The Bible 
commands us to love; but how can one command love? 
Love is free, we love those we want to love, and we be- 
lieve what we must believe, and we won't believe or love 
anything else. The natural man will not allow that sort 
of reasoning in the actual affairs of this life. What 
father would be satisfied with the logic of his son who 
should say — I am speaking now of a father who was 
judicious, faithful, kind, gentle, affectionate, that had 
studied his son's happiness, that had made every sacrifice 
to secure his son's highest well-being, and who almost 
lived for that boy, and whose most impassioned longing 
was to see him all that could gratify his father's pride 
and love ; if such a son should come and say, "My father, 
I have formed associations in life, and habits that have 
alienated me from you ; now I do not hesitate to tell you, 
that inasmuch as love is an involuntary thing and cannot 
be controlled, I am entirely excusable for the fact I am 
going to announce to you, that I do not love you at all !" 
The doubtful have not, often, a better logic than that, and 



KIND WORDS TO A DOUBTING HEART. 173 

that is what the man says that looks up to Christ, that 
looks up to God, the eternal Father, and says, "I cannot 
command my love ; I am ordered to love, but I must love 
as I can, not as I would, and I do not love you." Every 
right-minded and right-hearted man in the universe 
recoils with horror from statements like these ; and, after 
all, it is the moral condition more than the intellectual 
that creates this condition of skepticism in which the 
majority of men live. 

There is a wonderful foresight in unregenerate men. 
Many a man that knows what is right sees clearly that if 
he does the right he has to do it at a sacrifice he is un- 
willing to make. He won't renounce that sin, he won't 
break that habit, he won't change that wrong method of 
doing business which his conscience rebukes ; he won't 
make the sacrifice, and therefore he cherishes the doubt 
as an opiate, as a silence to his guilty conscience. 

These are some of the dislocations in man's moral 
nature. When we seek a remedy, in what direction can 
we look? There is but one only. John sent his disciples 
to Christ, and Christ sent back the answer to John, and 
the answer was, "The blind receive their sight, and the 
lame walk, and the deaf hear, and the lepers are cleansed, 
and the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel 
preached to them." Well, if there were a doubter here, I 
would do as John did — send him to Christ. 

Some have said that Christ attempted to convince 
John by miracles ; but no manifestation of power will 
convince me when I doubt — power cannot control my 
free soul. That is a miserable, inexcusable travesty of 
the whole spirit of the answer which our Lord gave to 
John. He never intended to convince men by the arbi- 
trary power of the miracles. There is no moral appeal in 
the mere exhibition of power. But, oh ! the heart of love 



174 SERMONS. 

that throbbed through the miracles of Christ, the spectacle 
of Christ himself becoming the greatest sufferer in the 
universe, although the most innocent being in the uni- 
verse: God having a sinless Son, and that Son the 
greatest sufferer in the universe because of pity for sinful 
man! That is the unanswerable power that speaks, that 
manifests itself, that shines, that irradiates and glorifies 
the miracles that our Lord wrought. 

"The blind receive their sight." Ah! these miracles 
of Christ — what did they mean? What good did it do 
to heal a blind man when there were ten thousand other 
blind men in the country that were not helped? What 
good did it do to unstop the ears of a deaf man, when all 
through the land were thousands that could not distin- 
guish between the sound of thunder and the voice of an 
angel? The glory of the miracles consisted in the fact 
that they were but types of the deliverance which our 
Lord came into this world to work, emblems of the inner 
transformations which were wrought by the manifesta- 
tion of his gracious power. What is the opening of the 
eyes of a blind man ? A good surgeon can do that ; often, 
by skill and delicate manipulation, he can take a cataract 
from the eye, and nature stands again disclosed in its 
freshness and beauty. But, ah ! the film that settles on 
the eye of the soul, that opaque integument through 
which not even a celestial ray can shine ! Ah ! when the 
divine touch removes that veil so that the soul looks out 
and sees forms infinitely more beautiful and glorious than 
any that were ever disclosed to the natural eye — not only 
forms of beauty and glory here upon this earth, but those 
transcendent forms of loveliness that the heaven of 
heavens contains ! What a revelation it is when such 
sight is communicated to the darkened soul! 

It is a mercy to unstop the deaf ear. We have pity 



KIND WORDS TO A DOUBTING HEART. 175 

for the people that sit sometimes in the house of God, and 
who cannot hear even the thunder of the organ, much 
less the voice of prayer or the songs that we may address 
to the throne of grace. But, ah! how much more won- 
derful the unstopping of the deaf ear of the soul, that it 
may appreciate the harmonies that the harpers standing 
upon the sea of glass in the heavens strike from those 
harps with their celestial touch — the harmonies that 
ravish heaven ! The opening of the eyes, the unstopping 
of the ears, the healing of the leper ! 

A leper is a loathsome thing, from which humanity 
recoils ; and yet we had better take a leper to our embrace 
than allow a leprous soul to dwell in the clay tenement 
that bears it about for a little season before it is damned 
eternally ! A leprous soul ! Ah ! when that healing touch 
comes, so that no infant in its sweetness and purity, no 
angel in its ineffable grace and sweetness, is freer from 
taint than the regenerate soul through the triumph of 
Christ's beneficent power when he cleanses the leper and 
makes him whiter than snow ! 

And the dead are raised up. Inspiration does not ex- 
aggerate, but inspiration uses a very terrible word in de- 
scribing the spiritual condition of the unregenerate man. 
What is that word? I happen to know three or four 
words in different languages that mean death ; and I do 
not know why it is — it may be association — but every 
one of them — I do not care in what language — every 
word that expresses what we mean by "death" has in it 
a sound that jars upon the ear with a discord that grates 
and wounds. Dead ! dead ! And not only dead, but 
buried ; and not only buried, but corrupt, with an un- 
mentionable, unimaginable corruption of the grave ! And 
when Christ comes and raises such a soul — when, by the 
power, the resurrection power of the Master, such a one 



176 SERMONS. 

is called forth from the tomb, in the very beauty and 
glory of the Almighty Saviour that calls him forth, when 
this mortal has put on immortality, when this dishonor 
has been crowned with glory, then you will see the trans- 
formation effected by the Master when he raises the dead 
and buried and putrified soul to the beauty and sweetness 
of immortal life. 

And the climax of it all is that "the poor have the 
gospel preached to them." It looks to you like an anti- 
climax. It is not. The subject has been rising all the 
while until it has touched its zenith, when Christ is de- 
clared to have come on a mission to the poor: that in- 
cluded the destitute of this world's goods. It comforts the 
poor in spirit, the neglected, the despised, the down- 
trodden, the uncared-for of our humanity; our Lord, 
forsaking the adoring ranks that gave him homage, 
divesting himself of those robes of glory which he wore, 
and took upon himself the form of a man, of a servant, 
and came down to be a partaker of their cares and sor- 
rows and privations; he was rich, yet became poor, that 
he might make the uncared-for millions of the world 
know that there is help from heaven, and help for them. 
The great majority of our race, the overwhelming ma- 
jority, live in penury, in grinding poverty — the great 
majority have ever done so, and will ever do so. And 
what does the world propose to do for their relief? What 
has the gospel of the socialist, what has the gospel of the 
anarchist, what has the gospel of the materialist to say 
to this great, uncounted class, the unnumbered millions 
of the poor of this world? The gospel of the one says, 
"You live in a world where injustice is supreme, where 
selfishness is dominant, where rich men band together for 
the purpose of crushing down the poor ; and you want a 
reign of liberty, of equality, of fraternity. Then perish 



KIND WORDS TO A DOUBTING HEART. 177 

the existing order of things ; let us have a new deal, and 
divide the world into equal parts, and then the millennium 
will come" — and a greater, grosser, more dastardly lie 
was never uttered in the ears of humanity. It overlooks 
the fact that the purpose to reconstruct society out of that 
sort of corrupt humanity could only result in failure. 
They would take the world as it is, and simply by me- 
chanical arrangement bring humanity, equality and peace 
to all men, forgetting that the elementary principles have 
not been eliminated, that that same injustice and greed 
and power would reproduce in a single generation the 
very order of which the anarchist complains as the result 
of human selfishness and human rapacity. 

And then comes another gospel from a new and dif- 
ferent source. It is the gospel of the scientist that recog- 
nizes all things as under the reign of an inflexible law, 
the law that only contemplates the survival of the fittest, 
the law that makes humanity grow by a blind selection, 
and which says that it is the order of the world, it is the 
best thing that can happen for the world, to let the weak 
go to the wall, the people that cannot protect themselves 
succumb to the rest ; that it is the fixed law of society 
that they shall go on until the weak and the helpless are 
crushed out, and a better order of humanity is developed 
and encouraged to take the place of those that perish, be- 
cause they were not fit to survive ! 

The gospel comes with this statement of the case: 
"The poor ye have always with you, and I am one of the 
poor ; I was born of lowly parents ; I have never had a 
home, I have gone about depending upon the charities of 
others, and when I die I expect to sleep in a borrowed 
tomb. I have come down to put my great, loving heart 
under this vast immeasurable mass of suffering men — I 
have come to identify myself with them, and to tell them 
12 



178 SERMONS. 

of Heaven's sympathy with the poor ; and I am going to 
begin a process of relief by teaching the poor how to 
emerge from poverty by the avoidance of those vices and 
those indulgences that fill the world with poverty, and, by 
the cultivation of those habits of industry and self-respect 
and self-control, by which men can rise and better them- 
selves, and occupy a better position ; and, better than that, 
I have come to tell the poor, that while their struggle is 
going on, they have the sympathy of all the purest and 
best in the universe, and while they may be destitute of 
this world's goods, they may be rich in faith, and have 
the accompanying solace of the gospel, heavenly in origin 
and heavenly in nature, such as gold cannot purchase, 
such as all the gold of Golconda cannot buy." Christ 
comes and says, "My gospel is not for the man that sits 
there on the throne, who rejoices in abundance of pos- 
sessions, but for the poor; the man that trembles at my 
word I take to my arms and to my heart; and the tri- 
umphs of the cross are to be manifested — not in the 
ranks of those that make social supremacy their ambi- 
tion — but those that listen to the voice that says, 'Come 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest.' " 

I close my sermon by saying that those that believe 
these things inherit something of the spirit of the Master ; 
they practically reproduce his life in their lives in the 
world. And here is something that I think cannot be 
denied, not even by the skeptic, and that is, that all the 
organized forms that this world contains for the uplifting 
of the down-trodden and for the amelioration of the 
wants and woes of suffering humanity, are the result of 
the spirit which Christ breathed into the minds and into 
the hearts of his disciples. Who have been the cham- 
pions of the right in every form ? Whenever the right to 



KIND WORDS TO A DOUBTING HEART. 179 

worship God according to the dictates of conscience has 
been questioned, who established it, save the heroes of 
the cross, who have been ready to sacrifice all for the 
sake of principles so dear ! Who founded the first col- 
leges in the colonies that grew into the imperial States of 
this great republic? Christian men. Who organized the 
great Bible Societies of Great Britain and America, that 
scatter throughout the world the leaves that are for the 
healing of the nations, except men that have reproduced 
in themselves the spirit of the divine Master? Who are 
those that are doing most for the uplifting of the uncared- 
for, dangerous class that are a menace to the social order, 
and to civilization itself, except the men who devote them- 
selves to missions and to individual activity in their 
efforts to bring men out of the depths of poverty and 
misery — the men that have imbibed the spirit of the 
Master, and have gone about doing good? 

This is the answer to the question, "Art thou he that 
should come; or look we for another?" And until in- 
fidelity finds a better substitute for the wants of the world 
— until infidelity finds a better object for the adoration of 
humanity than this — until that day comes, we will take 
this gospel, and say that — 

" All the forms that men devise, 
I will call them vanity and lies, 

And bind this gospel to my heart." 

" Thou, O Christ, art all I want, 
All in all in thee I find !" 



XIV. 
GOD'S TENDER MERCY. 

" Through the tender mercy of our God, the dayspring from 
on high hath visited us."— Luke i. 78. 

I HAVE oftentimes been asked what book I found most 
useful to me in the study of the Scriptures. I never 
take very long to answer that question; the book that I 
use most frequently and with the greatest advantage is 
the Concordance ; and if there is any Christian without a 
Concordance — either that of Young or of Cruden — let 
me advise him to make that addition to his library without 
delay. I looked over my Concordance to-day; I turned 
to the word "mercy," which is the theme of this sermon, 
and I noticed that there were four columns in the finest 
print, occupying an entire page, quoting verses from the 
Old Testament and the New in which the word "mercy" 
came, or in which something was said about the divine 
mercy. And not only that, but there is a division in one 
of the columns giving us the passages of Scripture that 
contain the two words "tender mercy." You observe 
these in the text, "Through the tender mercy of our God, 
the dayspring from on high hath visited us." Only see 
the beautiful passages ; let me refer you to some of them, 
in which the tender mercy of God is referred to. In the 
twenty-fifth Psalm we have, "Remember, O Lord, thy 
tender mercies, for they have been ever of old." In the 
fortieth Psalm we have, "Withhold not thy tender 
mercies, O Lord; let thy loving-kindness and thy truth 
preserve me." In the one hundred and third Psalm we 



GOD'S TENDER MERCY. 181 

have this, "Bless the Lord, O my soul ; who crowneth 
thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies." "Who 
crowneth thee !" I suppose that is where Oliver Crom- 
well got his favorite word, when in his speeches and his 
letters he so often talked about "crowning" mercies. In 
the forty-third Psalm we have, "The Lord is good to all, 
and his tender mercies are over all his works." And so 
in this long chapter, in this seventy-eighth verse of this 
first chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke we have these 
words, "Through the tender mercy of our God, the day- 
spring from on high hath visited us." 

There are few words more frequently used in our 
preaching, and few words that more frequently occur in 
all our religious reading than the word "mercy" ; and 
yet, familiar as the word is, we do not always understand 
the exact import, the precise meaning of it. Mercy is 
goodness softened by compassion ; mercy is the tear that 
trembles in the eye of goodness when goodness looks 
upon suffering. Mercy is favor shown to the miserable. 
But as sin is the cause of all the misery in the world, 
mercy means favor shown to the sinful, to the unworthy, 
to the ungrateful. Perhaps you have in your library 
books of synonyms. Well, there are no synonyms, strictly 
speaking, in any language, although there are words very 
near in resemblance to others in meaning: there is no 
synonym in any language for the word "mercy." The 
word "goodness" comes very near to it, but goodness is 
something different from mercy. The angels rejoice in 
the divine goodness ; they know nothing of the divine 
mercy ; goodness they always enjoyed ; mercy they never 
needed. The word "grace" is also very near to mercy in 
its signification, and yet there is a distinction between 
grace and mercy. Grace means God's free, spontaneous, 
unmerited, unpurchasable favor to those upon whom he 



182 SERMONS. 

fixes his regard ; but mercy has respect to the object of 
that regard. Grace has reference to the disposition on 
the part of God to show a kindness ; mercy is the gift 
that the poor sinner receives from the Almighty hand and 
heart. "When we look at God we call his mercy 'grace' ; 
when we look at the sinner we call his grace 'mercy.' ' 
It is with grace and mercy just as it is with some of the 
great rivers of the world: some of them have one name 
at their source; they have another name where they 
empty into the sea. God's benevolence is grace when it 
issues from his throne, it is mercy when it reaches his 
footstool on which we poor sinners dwell. And, there- 
fore, you see, close as the analogy is between these two 
words, there is a distinction between them, because when 
we think of grace our reference is to the great fountain 
of all good ; and when we talk about mercy, we think of 
the miserable men that need the divine pity. 

Let us fix another distinction clearly in our minds: 
mercy excludes all idea of merit on the part of one who is 
the object of it. Indeed, merit makes mercy unnecessary ; 
merit makes mercy impossible. A man may merit justice : 
a man never merits mercy. If a man were justly con- 
demned to die, the act of the executive in giving him 
pardon would be an act of mercy. If the man were not 
justly condemned to die, and were conscious of his inno- 
cence, if he were a brave man he would scorn to ask for 
mercy, he would demand justice and not mercy. There- 
fore, you see how important it is to ascertain exactly the 
place and the meaning of mercy, that we may have a clear 
understanding of the way of salvation. 

There are so many who profess to be the children of 
God who have some latent idea of personal merit, and 
who have a sort of complacent regard for their own 
reading and study of the Scriptures, for the regularity of 



GOD'S TENDER MERCY. 183 

their devotions, and for the constancy of their religious 
services. All that is right and proper, so far as cherish- 
ing this reverence for the Word of God, and for the 
obligation to lead consistent and useful lives, is con- 
cerned ; but alas ! for those who think that all this service 
and all these sacrifices have anything to do with their 
justification as sinners in the sight of God. The truth is, 
there is no such thing as salvation partly by works and 
partly by grace. If there is such an idea as that, it exists 
only in the deceived heart of the man who is so unfortu- 
nate as to cherish it. Salvation is either a gift, or it is a 
debt : if we have gained it, then will God pay his debts ; 
if we do not merit it, if we are undeserving, rebellious 
and ungrateful, then nothing but mercy can give us 
ground of hope. If I worked faithfully for you for a 
stipulated price, and you pay me what you owe, I will 
not allow you to call it a gift. If I give to a man out of 
compassion — to a man who has done me no service — I 
will not allow him to call it a debt. Precisely so it is in 
the matter of salvation. When a man can be found who 
is so just, so pure, so holy, so unblemished in heart and 
life as to come before God, and raise his hands and say, 
"These are clean hands, and this is a clean heart" ; then, 
if he dare, let him appeal to justice, and demand salva- 
tion as the reward of his purity and piety; but if a man 
be spotted with the sins he has committed, his soul 
darkened and defiled by transgression, and if that man 
has been cleansed in the precious blood which has been 
shed for redemption, and purified by the indwelling of 
the Holy Ghost, oh ! let him beware how he trusts in any- 
thing he has ever experienced or done, let him cast him- 
self wholly upon the mercy of God in Christ; and then 
he rests upon a firm foundation, and then only. The 
Pharisee in the temple justified himself, and went down 



184 SERMONS. 

to his house condemned. The poor publican in the temple 
condemned himself, and went down to his house justified. 

During the reign of the first Napoleon, a man was 
tried and was sentenced to death for an offence he had 
committed against the government. The daughter of this 
man, but a little child, forced her way through the guard 
around the palace, and then threaded her way through 
one apartment and hall after another, until at last she 
reached the Emperor, and fell down at his feet, and said, 
"O sire, have mercy on my father !" He asked her what 
her father's name was, and that name was fatal to her 
hopes, for said the Emperor, "This is the second time he 
has committed that offence, and it is just that he should 
suffer." "Ah !" said the little child, "It is not justice, it 
is mercy that I plead for my father." The Emperor's lip 
quivered, and the tears came into his eyes, and he said, 
"Well, child, for your sake I will pardon your father. 
Now go away and leave me." That must be our plea — 
"O Lord, enter not into judgment with thy servants, be 
not strict to mark our iniquity ; but have mercy upon us 
according to thy loving-kindness, according to the multi- 
tude of thy tender mercies, blot out our transgressions !" 

There is a very interesting account given us in the 
New Testament of the service that was rendered to the 
Apostle Paul at a critical period of his life when he was a 
prisoner at Rome, and when a man called Onesiphorus 
came and showed him kindness and espoused the cause 
of this prisoner at a time when odium was attached to 
the Christian name; and not only was odium attached 
to it, but there was danger in befriending a Christian man 
who had incurred the displeasure of the authorities. On- 
esiphorus was not ashamed to espouse the cause of the 
Apostle, and, as the Apostle said, he was not even 
ashamed of the chains he wore. And when Paul wanted 



GOD'S TENDER MERCY. 185 

to express his gratitude to Onesiphorus he did not do it 
as a worldling would have done — he did not wish for 
him long life, or wealth, or success, or pleasure, or pre- 
ferment ; but he summed up all the desires of his heart 
in one strong petition ; he said, "The Lord have mercy 
upon him in that day." That always was a very impres- 
sive prayer to me, because the Apostle does not say what 
day; there is something very eloquent in the omission. 
There is but one day — one day for which all the days of 
time were made ! "That day" — the Apostle knew that 
none could mistake his meaning — that day, when all the 
nations are assembled at the bar — the day of final judg- 
ment of the world ! The Lord grant that we may all 
obtain mercy in that day ! Mercy, then, will be worth all 
the universe besides. 

But the text speaks of "tender mercy" ; and now 
when I come to this branch of my subject I am very much 
embarrassed ; I hardly know what thread to take up ; I 
hardly know in the multitude of illustrations that come to 
me what is most worthy of attention in illustrating, not 
only the mercy of God, but the tenderness of that mercy. 
Very often when we contemplate a being like God, we 
are apt to think that because he is so great and so infinite 
in all his perfections, because he is so supremely glorious, 
that he cannot be a tender being; we do not naturally 
associate tenderness and power together, and yet it is the 
greatness of God, it is the infinitude of his wisdom and 
power that makes him the tender being that he is. Do not 
mistake, and suppose that greatness is incompatible with 
tenderness, with sensitiveness. What do you see in 
Nature? The greatest object that you can contemplate is 
the ocean. There is nothing more sensitive than the sea. 
If it is calm when night comes, all the constellations of 
heaven are mirrored on its surface ; in the day-time when 



1 86 SERMONS. 

it is calm, if a fleecy cloud flits across the blue, there we 
may see the cloud floating down in the depths. The ocean 
is exquisitely sensitive; it is the great daguerreotype 
gallery of the world, and there is nothing so delicately 
photographed in her as everything is photographed on 
the surface of the deep, wide sea. The mountain is an 
emblem of greatness, and when you stand at the base of a 
great, beetling crag, you say, "This is an emblem of all 
that is stern and strong" ; and yet if a little bird happens 
to perch upon a crevice of the rock and break forth into 
song, the great rock echoes back the music of the bird. 
If a little child should happen to cry at the base of that 
frowning crag, the cry of the little child would be repeated 
by the rock. If it is one bird singing, you imagine there 
are two; and it is the singing or the sighing rock that 
echoes back the carol of the bird or the plaint of the child. 
So it is with God : his greatness does not make him any 
the less tender. There is one figure, that occurs very fre- 
quently in the Scriptures, that gives a very pleasing, a 
very striking illustration of the divine tenderness, and 
that is that God takes his unprotected and defenceless 
children under the covert of his wings. I have always 
been very much touched by those passages of Scripture in 
which that figure occurs. The feathers under the wings 
of a bird are always the softest ; and the little bird takes 
her young under her wings, near her heart — so near 
that they may feel its beatings. And so it is with us. It 
is an exquisite figure our Lord himself used. When he 
was weeping over Jerusalem, he said, "How often would 
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
not." And so when I look in the seventeenth Psalm I 
find this, "Keep me as the apple of thine eye; hide me 
under the shadow of thy wings." The most sensitive 



GOD'S TENDER MERCY. 187 

part of the human frame is the eye ; and the most sensi- 
tive part of the eye is the pupil, the apple of the eye ; and 
God is said to care for his people as for the apple of his 
eye, and under the shadow of his wings he hides them 
from all that would harm them. And in the thirty-sixth 
Psalm I find this, "How excellent is thy loving-kindness" 
— not kindness, but loving-kindness. Then I look in 
the fifty-seventh Psalm and find this, "O Lord, be merci- 
ful to me ; my soul trusteth in thee ; yea, in the shadow 
of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities 
be overpast." And in the ninety-first Psalm I find this, 
"He that dwelleth in the sacret place of the Most High 
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say 
of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress ; my God, 
in him will I trust." I think we have some very charming 
illustrations of these passages of Scripture in our Hymn- 
book. In the fifty-seventh Psalm we have this : 

" My God ! in whom are all the springs 
Of boundless love and grace unknown, 
Hide me beneath thy spreading wings, 
Till the dark cloud be over-blown." 

And in the best of all the hymns that have ever been 
written — 

" Other refuge have I none ; 

Hangs my helpless soul on thee; 
Leave, ah ! leave me not alone, 

Still support and comfort me. 
All my trust on thee is stayed ; 

All my help from thee I bring; 
Cover my defenceless head 

With the shadow of thy wing." 

Ah! this is just one of the illustrations the Scriptures 
give us of the tender mercy of our God. 

And now I must take for my last illustration one of 



188 SERMONS. 

the promises that are made in the Old Testament prophe- 
cies. In the Book of Ezekiel, where he said, "I will be to 
you a little sanctuary,'' I want to show you the inimitable 
tenderness in these words. At first it does not appear 
obvious, but it will appear very obvious. When the 
people were carried into captivity we are told that their 
enemies taunted them, and said to them, "Sing us one of 
the songs of Zion." But they said, "How can we sing in 
a strange land?" They wept when they remembered 
Zion, when they remembered the temple where the tribes 
went up, and where the multitude went to keep holy day. 
Part of their desolation consisted in the thought that 
they could not meet with their brethren, and unite with 
them in the worship of the temple ; and how does God 
comfort them? He said to them, "I will be to you more 
than the long line of the priesthood ; you need not the 
golden altar; I will be to you a little sanctuary; I will 
gather you to me, gather you closely to me, and in the 
secret of the tabernacle of my love, in the tender pavilion 
of my heart, I will hide you ; there you may wonder, and 
worship, and love!" How did the patriarchs do before 
there was a church or temple in the world? Did God 
leave them without any consolation? We read that one 
of them, indeed, laid down at night on the ground, with a 
stone for a pillow, and he had such a vision that he said, 
"This is indeed the house of God, the gate of heaven." 
There was no "house," no "gate" there. What did he 
mean? He meant that God revealed himself as a dwell- 
ing-place, a shelter, a home, and that the love and kind- 
ness of his God was the gate, the door in which he entered 
and found mercy. 

Then, again, you must recollect how many there are 
in our own country who are destitute of the privileges of 
the house of God, because they live in those regions 



GOD'S TENDER MERCY. 189 

where the population is very scarce, and where the people 
are very poor, and they are not able to support the ordi- 
nances of the ministry and the regular worship of God ; 
and many of them are amongst the most devout people of 
the world — some of your kindred may live just there. 
Do you suppose God leaves them because they have no 
house of worship in which to gather ? Oh ! no ; he says, 
"I will be to you a little sanctuary." And even when 
there is no house in the neighborhood where the people 
may gather, there is often a church in the family, where 
the father is the priest, the members of the family the 
congregation, and where God comes down and visits them 
with his grace. 

And then think of the multitude who have no settled 
home in the world. You know there are occupations that 
keep men continually upon the water or upon the road. 
They have no settled habitation or place of worship. But 
among these, how many there are to whom God is a little 
sanctuary. 

I am very much interested in a society located in the 
city of Baltimore, a society of people who travel upon our 
railroads. Hundreds of times these people, who have no 
opportunity, such as you now have, of sitting in God's 
house and listening to God's Word, long for the privilege. 
But God does not give them up; he does not deprive 
them ; he says to them, "I will be to you a little sanc- 
tuary." I thank God that the sailor in the forecastle, 
smelling of bilge-water and clothes hung up to dry — 
even there upon the rolling deep, he hears God say, "I 
will be to you a little sanctuary; tenderly I will come to 
you, and will protect and cherish you." 

There is a newspaper called Shut-in; it is published 
for people who are invalids, and cannot leave their homes. 
There are a great many people in that situation, who 



190 SERMONS. 

would give anything in reason to sit, as you are doing, 
and listen to the sermon, but, because of duty or sickness, 
they cannot leave the chamber where they are confined. 
I do think if there is any place where God's mercy be- 
comes tender mercy, it is to the people I am describing. 
Our dear aged friends, and those who are afflicted with 
incurable maladies — do you think God excludes them 
from his love and favor because they cannot meet in the 
church? He has his eye upon them, and the chamber in 
which they are confined is dearer to him than any cathe- 
dral upon the earth, unless that cathedral be consecrated 
,to pure and spiritual worship. I think some of the most 
beautiful examples of Christian resignation and Christian 
grace I have ever witnessed, and some of the sweetest 
testimonies to grace I ever heard came from the lips of 
people shut in from the world, but not shut in from his 
tender mercy. 

And then when people come to the last scene in life, 
they find a fulfilment of the last part of this text. "The 
dayspring from on high" visits them. It is a beautiful 
picture of the dawn of the day, before the sun gets to its 
zenith — "the dayspring from on high hath visited us I" 
Ah ! how many there are, who, when they come to the last 
scene on earth, when they are passing through the valley 
and the shadow of death, can say, "I fear no evil, for 
thou art with me" — in the darkness there shines a steady, 
celestial light ? How many can say : 

''Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes ; 
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies ; 
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee. 
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!" 

Oh! "how bright the unchanging morn appears" to 
one upon whom this light has dawned, and who is just 



GOD'S TENDER MERCY. 191 

about to bid the world farewell, and to go from the "little 
sanctuary" here on earth to the great sanctuary in the 
skies, where the multitude of the redeemed dwell in the 
light and joy of God's presence, irradiated by his glory 
for evermore ! 



XV. 
iWEEPING OVER JERUSALEM. 

"And when he was come near he beheld the city, and wept 
over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this 
thy day, the things which belong to thy peace, but now they are 
hid from thine eye." — Luke xix. 42, 43. 

THE Oriental world is full of buried cities, the history 
of which, and the mounds which mark the spots 
where they stood, are of the deepest interest to the anti- 
quarian and the scholar. Among these I mention, first, 
Ur, the city of the Chaldees, the centre of a splendid 
civilization, the people that gave letters to the Phoenicians 
and to the Greeks, the people that had mathematical and 
astronomical tables, that calculated the eclipses and the 
spots on the sun — the city most memorable as that from 
which the patriarch came, whose faith triumphed over 
time, so that he beheld that other city that hath founda- 
tions, whose maker and builder is God. Then I might 
mention Nineveh, standing upon the banks of the Tigris, 
the city of iron chariots and of ambitious soldiers, the 
city where the most splendid palace was built, save one, 
that mortal eye ever looked upon; the city whose kings 
and generals were more feared by the world than Napo- 
leon was feared by the states of Europe in his desolating 
career of conquest; the city that, in the zenith of its 
rapacious power, heard the voice of the solitary, lone 
prophet, crying out, "Fear her not, for as the grass- 
hoppers camp in the hedges in the cold day, and when the 
sun riseth flee away, and no one knows whither they are 




SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
Richmond, Va. 



WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM. 193 

gone, so it shall be for longing." Sixty years afterwards 
that prophecy was fulfilled. Nine hundred years after- 
wards, when Alexander fought the great battle of Arbela, 
neither of the armies knew that underneath the spot 
where they had their conflict was the dust of the buried 
city. For a thousand years silence reigned until the dis- 
entombed stones told the story, and confirmed the 
saying that "they that take the sword shall perish by the 
sword." 

We might .mention Babylon, the city of sensuality, that 
fell by its own corruption ; we might speak of Memphis, 
the city of the dead, the mausoleum of ancient Egypt; 
we might speak of Tyre, the city of fleet and merchant 
princes ; but the text calls us to speak of another Eastern 
city, more interesting to us than any, than all, to which I 
have made allusion — Jerusalem, standing, not upon a 
great river like the Tigris, nor upon the arm of any sea, 
but standing isolated and exempt from the great debate 
of the world, from the world's ambitions and the world's 
enterprises, and I might say also from the world's pros- 
perity, yet the shrine that has been visited by pilgrims 
from all climes and centuries, the city dear alike to the 
Mohammedan, to the Christian and the Jew, not because 
it stands upon the banks of a navigable river, or because 
a fine harbor opens from it into the sea, or because a 
thoroughfare passes through its gates for the commerce 
of the world, but because it contains an empty tomb, and 
because along the dolorous way there once walked those 
feet that two thousand years ago were nailed for our ad- 
vantage to the bitter cross. It is to this city that the text 
directs our attention to-night, by the mention of some- 
thing most wonderful, for here we have the record of the 
last visit that Christ ever paid to it ; here we have the 
record of his divine sorrow, and here that pathetic address 
13 



194 SERMONS. 

that sounded the city's dirge in notes of immeasurable 
woe. O that with reverence to-night we might consider 
the causes of these tears, the meaning of this outburst of 
sacred grief ! And what, perhaps, first arrests our atten- 
tion is the strangeness of it, the unexpectedness of it, the 
contrast which it presents to everything that surrounded 
Christ, and that was happening in the city at that very 
moment. It must have been a wonderful sorrow that 
overmastered all the ebullitions of joy, all that was jubi- 
lant in the whole city at the time when Jesus was the 
only weeper. How strange it was that when he got to 
the descent of the Mount of Olives, and was just going 
to enter the city that was endeared to him by a thousand 
tender associations, the city to which his parents took him 
when he was a little child, when he paid it that ever 
memorable visit ; that he was just about to enter the city 
where he had delivered some of his most impressive dis- 
courses, and where he had wrought some of his most 
splendid miracles — that the very sight of it all at once 
should have set him to weeping! Ordinarily, when a 
visitor is about to enter a great city, he is full of excite- 
ment, he is full of pleasureable anticipations ; he is look- 
ing forward to the revival of old memories, to the delight 
of inspecting scenes of former pleasure, and to the re- 
newal of happy intercourse with the friends from whom 
he has been separated ; but now Jesus weeps, and what is 
stranger still, he shed those bitter tears in a time of gen- 
eral joy. The inhabitants had just tendered him a great 
reception ; some of them had cut down the branches of 
the trees to strew them in the way, and others threw their 
garments in his path. Everywhere the hosannas were 
sounding from the populace gathering all around, some 
marching in the front, and others following in the rear, 
all crying out, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 



WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM. 195 

the Lord. Glory in the highest !" And yet, in the midst 
of these acclamations of a rejoicing people, Jesus wept, 
not with those silent tears he shed at the grave of Lazarus. 
I am so thankful, oh! so thankful, that there is no sin in 
tears — 

" When sorrowing o'er some stone I bend, 
That covers all that was a friend ; 
Thou seest, dear Lord, the tears I shed, 
Who wept thyself o'er Lazarus dead." 

Oh ! Christ will not rebuke your grief ; when you go 
to the cemetery, he would rather go with you and mingle 
his tears with yours. But these were not silent tears, like 
those that he wept at the grave of Lazarus ; they were 
accompanied by broken utterances, a few words at a time, 
with a sob at every step. Listen — "O that thou hadst 
known — even thou — at least in this thy day — the 
things that belong to thy peace — but now they are hid 
from thine eyes." Oh ! when strong men weep, there must 
be some reason. Oh ! there must have been some cause 
for tears like these. They were not such tears as Tenny- 
son speaks of in the well-remembered passage — 

"Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean." 

These were not idle tears, and we know what they meant, 
or something of what they meant, for they came from 
the depths of a divine despair ; the tears that formed first 
in the heart, and then ascended to the eyes; the tears 
that were wept over days forever gone. 

"And when he drew near he beheld the city," and all 
at once such were the demonstrations of his grief that he 
converted that great pageant into something like a funeral 
procession ; he converted that wonderful festival that 
the people were then holding into a tragedy. But let us 



196 SERMONS. 

go back a little, and see what Christ was doing before the 
curtain rises on this lamentable scene. 

He had been down toward the sea ; he had been 
walking through the eastern part of the land, and as he 
returned he passed through Bethany without stopping to 
speak with Martha and Mary, whom he loved. He 
climbed the eastern slope of the hill of Olives, until he 
reached the summit, and as he approached he was met by 
the jubilant crowd, some of them rejoicing with nothing 
to do but rejoice in the King that was coming in the name 
of the Lord, but others rejoicing in anticipation of what 
that King would do for them, and blind men came stag- 
gering along in the hope that their eyes might be healed, 
while kind people carried upon a litter the lame man or 
the paralytic who could not walk, and when mothers came 
carrying their sick babes lying like withered flowers in 
their bosoms. It was then, when the multitude thus 
approached Christ, and when he got to the summit of the 
hill, and looked down from the Mount of Olives, he saw 
the city spread out in all its extent and beauty before his 
eye, and down there where the Kedron flowed was the 
deep valley, not dark and repulsive as it now is, but all 
filled with terraced and beautiful gardens, and among 
the gardens, Gethsemane. And then, when he looked 
across the valley, there upon Mt. Moriah he saw the 
goodly temple, standing like a mountain of alabaster, 
with a roof fretted with gold ; and beyond the temple, to 
the left, he saw Mt. Zion, and to the right, beyond the 
city wall, he saw that mound just peering over the top 
of the battlements called Calvary. This was the scene 
that was presented to him, and then, while all the children 
were singing, while all the flowers were blooming, and 
while the air quivered with the melodies of the multitude, 
then it was that Christ was arrested in his progress, and 



WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM. 197 

stood rooted to the spot, and began to weep as he said, 
"O that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy 
day, the things that belong to thy peace, but now they 
are hid from thine eye." Oh ! we would very much 
mistake our blessed Lord if we were to suppose that he 
had no sympathy with the people were were giving him 
this welcome — that he had no sympathy with the dear 
little children who were shouting their hosannas. Oh ! 
he was too kind and tender for that, for he was the Good 
Shepherd, and those children were the lambs of his flock. 
The rejoicing people were the people of his pasture, 
and all of them who had any just ideas of his character or 
the purpose of his descent into the world — all were 
Christ's, and he rejoiced at the time when he wept. 
Again, it is evident that such a strange commingling of 
emotion in the mind and in the heart of Christ, and some- 
thing so contradictory to ordinary experience, and to all 
that we would have anticipated, that we cannot too care- 
fully try to ascertain what could have been the causes of 
these tears, and what was the meaning of this lament of 
Christ. 

The first thing that impressed him when the view of 
the city met his vision was the melancholy change that 
had taken place in it. It was still beautiful for situation, 
but it was no longer the joy of the earth. The temple 
was still standing there, but it no longer contained the 
semblance of the divine presence ; it was no longer the 
house of God, and the gate of heaven ; a superstitious, 
avaricious priesthood ministered at its holy altars; the 
glory that once irradiated the cherubim had departed ; 
the tribes still came up to worship there, but not with the 
old devotion. Surrounding that temple was a turbulent 
people clamoring for a temporal deliverer, and just ready 
to reject their own Messiah, and to crown that rejection 



198 SERMONS. 

with the saddest tragedy that the eye of human ever 
beheld since God made the world. And when Jesus 
looked, his eye affecting his heart, he wept, as he saw the 
city almost universally opposed to himself, and to the 
salvation that he came to offer. Oh! how hard it is to 
bear rejected love, love scorned, love trampled upon. 
There never was love like his, never tears like his, when 
sorrow and love flowed mingled down, and when his 
heart was almost breaking at the thought that in vain had 
been his assumption of our flesh, in vain that lowly birth 
at Bethlehem, the straw, the manger, the cattle, the dark- 
ness and the midnight cold ; in vain those weary years 
when he walked the earth without a place to lay his head, 
in vain his tender entreaties, in vain his miracles of power, 
all of which were miracles of benevolence and love ; few 
were his friends, and bitter and relentless his enemies. 
And now Christ was to be rejected with a super-added 
sadness; that he came to his own, and his own received 
him not, and seeing this, he beheld the city and wept. 

That reminds me that there was a class of people 
that once lived (I hope they have left no descendants), 
who said that it was a weakness in Christ to weep; that 
it was a pity there was any record of his tears left in his 
biography. Oh! my friends, what strange ideas some 
persons must have had of what constituted true manhood. 
What a strange idea some persons have of the elements 
of the truest greatness, and the very strength of the 
omnipotent God. Never was Christ brought nearer to us, 
never did he stand in an attitude more touching than 
when he stood there, on that festive day, the only one 
that was filled with speechless woe, or if not speechless, 
expressed by broken words that could only half give 
utterance to the sorrow that filled his heart. 

I remember, too, when Titus walked round the city of 



WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM. 199 

Jerusalem, after its capture, and saw that valley to which 
I alluded just now, filled with the dead bodies of the 
slain, as he contemplated the magnitude of that atrocity, 
so much affected was he, hard Roman as he was, that he 
wept, raised his hands and eyes to heaven, and declared 
that he was not responsible for that awful scene. It was 
David's great ancestor who once wept on the very spot 
where Jesus now stood weeping, for when David was 
driven from the city in that great flight which he was 
compelled by his subjects to take, as he passed the brow 
of this same Olivet, he threw dust upon his head, and 
went weeping and falling on his face. 

There is something else, my friends, that arrests our 
attention here. There was one burden that Christ had 
always to bear — and he was the only one who ever 
walked the earth who had to bear that burden — and that 
was the cross. He foresaw the future, and all that was 
in the future, with the distinctness of present vision. 
Oh ! let us all thank God that it is not so with any of us, 
that an unlifted veil hangs over the future. Oh ! could 
the youngest and the happiest of us all only see the dis- 
appointed hopes, the wrecked aspirations, the darkness 
and the desolation of coming bereavement, would it not 
take all the music, and all the sweetness, and all the fra- 
grance out of life? Let us be thankful that we cannot 
read the future. It was not so with Christ; he saw it 
all, as I have said, with the distinctness of immediate 
vision ; and, therefore, at this very time, while the birds 
were singing, and while the children were rejoicing, and 
while the multitude were uttering their acclamations, 
while the trees were waving in the wind, and while the 
leaves were glittering in the sunlight, Jesus wept and 
said, "O that thou hadst known, at least in this thy day, 
the things that belong to thy peace, but now they are hid 



200 SERMONS. 

from thine eyes," because Christ saw, at that very moment 
(while to other eyes the skies were blue), the cloud that 
was fringing that distant East; he saw the storm that 
was brewing; he heard the distant moan of the thunder 
all around the horizon, and he knew that, in a little while, 
around Jerusalem a trench of death should be dug, and 
that its people should be pressed on every side ; that there 
should not be one stone in temple or house that should 
not be thrown down, and that the day was coming when 
fathers and mothers, when husbands and wives would 
fight each other, each snatching for a fragment of that 
food which they were striving to wrest one from the other 
— and that food the mother's own babe. Christ saw the 
desolation that was approaching, and saw it just as clearly 
as if he had been a spectator — the time when there was 
not wood enough growing around Jerusalem to furnish 
crosses on which to hang and crucify its population. 
When he saw this, do you think words could give ade- 
quate expression to the infinite woe that filled and thrilled 
his heart? 

And now suppose some one should say, "What is all 
this to us?" It is all to us that it was to the people over 
whom Jesus wept. We have just as much interest in that 
Christ, and in all that he taught, as the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem had; and it is just as true of these preachers in 
the house this evening, and of all the people of God of all 
the churches represented here this evening, and of all my 
dear impenitent friends — it is just as true as it was of 
that generation, that we will altogether be ruined unless 
we find out the things which belong to our peace, and 
unless we secure them now. Christ said, "Thou" (Jeru- 
salem) — not some other city, but "Thou" — "O that 
thou hadst known" — Jerusalem might have known. We 
will not speculate about what will finally become of those 



WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM. 201 

who never heard the name of Christ, and who did not 
know that there was a salvation provided for men, but 
oh ! with regard to those whose ignorance is wilful, who 
have eyes, but will not open them, and ears and volun- 
tarily stop them, whose ignorance is not necessitated, but 
preferable, ignorance in which they choose to live ! Oh ! 
my friends, what shall we say of those? "O that thou 
hadst known" — O that thou who dost know, and do not 
care! That is the difficulty, that is the reason w r e are 
holding these services ; it is because of the multitudes of 
those who were born in this Christian land, born of Chris- 
tian parents, who have lived all their lives under the 
shadow of the sanctuary, and who have been listening 
since childhood to the sweetest sounds that mercy utters 
from the cross, and yet will not embrace the Saviour who 
died on it — oh ! it is because they will not care for these 
things that we come night after night with our appeals, 
and with our entreaties, and with our prayers to God to 
help us. "Oh ! that thou hadst known the things which 
belong to thy peace." I could not enumerate what these 
things are. This congregation is so well instructed that 
any of you could say what they are. You know the things 
that belong to our peace are repentance toward God and 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that these are 
both the gifts, the free gifts of God to every one who 
asks them. We all know that although we are great 
sinners, Christ is the greater Saviour. We all know that 
he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God 
by him. Oh ! well do I remember that good man who 
used to walk our streets, and worship in our churches, 
who sometimes would say to me, "If that text had not 
been put in the Bible, I do not know that I ever would 
have been a Christian; but I know that, although my 
guilt has been aggravated, and so enormous and inex- 



202 SERMONS. 

cusable, there is nothing beyond the uttermost." I believe 
the Apostle meant it when he said, "And there is nothing 
beyond the uttermost. I cling to Christ, and know that I 
will be saved." Talk about peace, there is no> peace, there 
is no peace with your own conscience, wicked man. You 
know there is no peace, and there never will be peace 
until God is reconciled, until you have an assurance of 
forgiveness, until you are an adopted member of his 
family, until you have the pledge of future guidance of 
the Spirit, of victory over the last enemy, and an abun- 
dant entrance into the kingdom of Christ, and a place in 
glory everlasting. These are the things that belong to 
your peace, and these are the things that you neglect, and 
these are the things, which, because of that neglect, 
compel us ceaselessly to stand before you as God's ambas- 
sadors, and beseech you in Christ's stead, and as you 
value your Own souls, to be reconciled to God. 

Everything is beautiful in its season, but I do not 
know of anything so beautiful in any season as the day of 
grace ; so Christ says, "In this thy day," when the Sun of 
Righteousness is shining; "In this thy day," when God 
the Father is inviting, when God the Son, with tenderest 
importunity is pleading, when God the Spirit waits in 
order that you may come and find all the hope that you 
need to become a true, loving, happy, rejoicing Christian. 
Oh ! the sweetness of the day of grace. "In this thy day" 
— that day is limited, every day is limited. That day will 
end just as certainly as this Sunday has ended. Even 
Christ said, "I must work while it is yet day, for the night 
cometh in which no man can work." Oh! dear, impeni- 
tent friend, your night will come just as certainly as this 
Sunday night has come, and if you trifle away your day 
of grace, and do not get the things that belong to your 
peace, that day will be followed by night, rayless, impene- 



WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM. 203 

trable, eternal night. The man who trifles with conviction 
is running a most dreadful hazard. The keen vibration 
of bright truth is hell. There was an instrument of tor- 
ture once, when a man was laid down on his back and 
strapped to a board. There was a pendulum that was set 
to swinging right over his head. The edge of it was 
sharp as a razor, and it was worked by a kind of clock- 
work, that let the pendulum down with every vibration, 
and it came nearer and nearer. It was right above the 
man's eyes, and as he watched it with every vibration, 
what a shudder when he saw that pendulum blade coming 
nearer and nearer, and when he knew that presently it 
would strike across both eyes ; and as he watched the 
gleam of that fatal, infernal instrument of cruelty, it 
reminds me of what the writer means when he says, "The 
keen vibration of bright truth is hell." There is nothing 
so dangerous as for a man to trifle with conviction, except 
to trifle with the Spirit of God. I preached once in a 
neighboring county, and there was a man over fifty years 
of age in the congregation, with whom I went home to 
spend the night. He was not a professor of religion, but 
had been attending church all his life, and when we got 
by ourselves, the first thing he said was, "Did you say 
in your sermon that it was possible to grieve away the 
Spirit, and that the Bible said, 'My Spirit shall not always 
strive'?" I said, "Yes, I said that. Why do you ask 
me?" "Well," said he, "I never heard that before." 
What amazing mental indolence must fill the minds of 
some people when they listen, as that man had been doing 
all his life, and had never heard that that statement was 
in the Bible. When I said that it was, he said, "That is 
the most solemn thing I ever heard since I was born." 
"Yes," said I, "it is a very solemn thing for you, who 
have passed the meridian of life, and have never yet 



204 SERMONS. 

obtained a hope of salvation. It is a very solemn thing, 
'My Spirit shall not always strive.' ' That man was 
thoughtful, oh! so thoughtful, all the remainder of that 
visit. But the man who persists in trifling with convic- 
tion, by and by will not have any convictions. Oh ! my 
friends, I am almost afraid to touch on this subject for 
fear that some that hear will be affected by it for the 
moment, and then dismiss it. The man who trifles with 
conviction, and who keeps saying to the Spirit, "Go thy 
way; when I have a convenient season, I will call for 
thee," by and by loses the possibility of feeling any con- 
viction. All the avenues by which eternal truths may 
come into his soul are stopped up; he bars and locks the 
gates of mercy against himself, and he gets into that fear- 
ful condition described in two words by the Apostle, 
"Past feeling." I do not know what is the most solemn 
verse of the Bible, but it may be that there is nothing 
more solemn than these words, "Past feeling." My 
hearer, will you not help me now a moment, while I try 
to describe your case, and reveal it to you ? Can you not 
remember the time when your heart was tenderer than 
it is now? Can you not remember the time when there 
was a certain text, certain verses that you could not read 
or hear quoted without some emotion? Can you remem- 
ber, perhaps away back, in those childhood days when 
you stood at your mother's knee, when she looked at you 
with her angel face, and talked with you about Jesus, that 
the story seemed sweeter than it has ever seemed since? 
Oh ! can you not call to mind some precious revival of 
religion when you were almost persuaded, and when you 
were so thoughtful and anxious that you went and saw 
the minister, and asked him to tell you what you must 
do in order to be saved ? Have not all these seasons gone 
by, leaving you just as far away — not leaving you just 



WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM. 205 

as you were, because it is harder now to awaken your 
interest, and to touch your heart than it was then ? Oh ! 
brethren, what shall we do with these people? Lord, 
teach us what to do, and what we must say, what we 
must say now, and say it earnestly, and say it lovingly, 
while you can hear it, and before death stops the mouth 
of this speaker, and stops the ears of these hearers? 
What shall we say ? I will not say any more ; I take you, 
one by one, by the hand, and I lead you into the very 
presence of Christ to-night. I put you under the very 
tears of Jesus, and when these tears fall on your cheek, if 
they do not melt your heart, then, my friends, I do not 
know what to say beyond that ; but I think that if Christ 
himself were standing in this pulpit, and speaking to this 
congregation, perhaps he could not say a more appro- 
priate or a more solemn thing than this, "O that thou 
hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that 
belong to thy peace." Lord Jesus, do not say, "But now 
are they hid from thine eyes"; wait a little. 



XVI. 
WHAT MEAN YE BY THIS SERVICE? 

"And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto 
you, What mean ye by this service?" — Exodus xii. 26. 

"T XrHAT mean ye by this service?" The service 
' * referred to in the text was the Jewish Passover, 
that had its first celebration in Egypt on that memorable 
night when the proud, imperious will of Pharaoh was at 
last broken by the tenth and most terrible of the judg- 
ments which came upon him, so that he gave his consent 
to let the people go, and commence their splendid march 
to the land of which the Lord God had told them ; it was 
on the night of the exodus, of their going out, starting 
on their journey. It was on the night of the exodus, but 
inasmuch as it was to be a sacrament for all time, and for 
the generations of the world, even to the end of time (for 
I shall show you presently the Passover is yet celebrated, 
and ever will be) ; inasmuch as it was to be a perpetual- 
ordinance, God gave the injunction, through the mouth of 
Moses, to this effect: that whenever the children in any 
Jewish family, after they were settled in the Land of 
Promise, when any of the children asked their parents 
what was meant by this sacrifice, they were to tell them. 
The word "passover" was taken from the simple fact that 
the angel of death passed over every Israelite's house on 
the lintels and door-posts of which the blood of the lamb 
had been sprinkled, passing over the houses where they 
saw the blood. The ordinance which I shall tell you about 
was one which was to be observed through all successive 



"WHAT MEAN YE BY THIS SERVICE?" 207 

ages, and children would very naturally inquire of their 
parents what was its meaning, and what its significance. 

Now I wish you to observe, neither Moses nor Aaron 
were commanded to communicate this, nor were the 
priests instructed to undertake to teach the children, but 
this the parents themselves were to do. In the beginning 
God, in the Israelitish family, caused us to recognize the 
parents as the spiritual guardian of their children. While 
the pastor may help, and the faithful Sunday-school 
teacher, and Bible-class teacher may help, yet the parents 
cannot delegate, believing themselves unable, the faithful 
instruction of their children. Therefore, the Jewish 
father was instructed to tell his children how this Pass- 
over originated ; what was meant by it ; how it was to be 
observed, and what blessings might be expected to come 
from the faithful observance of it. And, my friends, 
while, of course, the whole paschal ordinance was more 
interesting to the Jews of that age and time than it can be 
to us, yet it is of so much interest and importance to you 
that we do well to speak of it, especially of its connection 
with another ordinance, which has taken its place, which 
has been the continuance and perpetuation of the first 
Passover; another ordinance which has taken its place, 
and which we, in the providence of God, are going to 
celebrate this morning. 

It was while the Israelites were groaning under their 
cruel bondage in the land of Egypt, that Moses was 
commanded to go to Pharaoh and proclaim the command 
to let the people go. Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord 
that I should obey him ; I know not the Lord, neither 
will I let the people go." Then came the nine plagues ; 
and then these nine were followed by the tenth, which 
finally crushed the imperious will of Pharaoh. That 
judgment which God kept in store was the smiting of the 



208 SERMONS. 

first-born in every Egyptian house, and lo ! there was not 
a house in which, when morning came, there was not one 
dead. The cloud of divine anger overspread the entire 
land, and the Jewish families were just as much in danger 
of destruction, the death of the first-born, as the Egyptian 
families, and they were only saved by a most extraordi- 
nary expedient, and that was that every family was to 
select a lamb, an unblemished lamb, and slay it, and take 
the blood and a little branch of hyssop, and dip the hyssop 
branch in the blood, and go and sprinkle it — notice, the 
command was to sprinkle it upon the side posts and upper 
lintel of the door, but never on the lower, thus teaching 
us that the blood was never to be trodden on ; only to the 
left and right sides and above the door was the blood 
sprinkled, not on the threshold. Then, when "the Angel 
of Death spread his wings on the blast," in the midnight 
hour, the hour of terrible judgment — for judgments at 
midnight are more terrible than those in the day — then 
it was that every Jewish house, on which the angel saw 
the sprinkled blood, was passed over, and all were passed 
over behind the sprinkled blood. This was the origin of 
the institution. Nor was this all of its significance ; every 
Jewish man which took a lamb, and slew that lamb, said 
by that act, "I am a sinner, and deserve death, but God, 
in his infinite and adorable condescension and pity, has 
allowed me to take a substitute, a vicarious substitute, a 
type of the true Lamb, who was slain by the eternal pur- 
pose of God." Every Jew who slew his lamb said, "I de- 
serve this death, yet I hope to live, and know I shall live 
if I put my trust in God, and put the blood on the door." 
Thus, at that early period of the world, men were taught 
that "without the shedding of blood there was no remis- 
sion." 

Another great significance connected with this ordi- 



"WHAT MEAN YE BY THIS SERVICE?" 209 

nance was that those who partook of it were not allowed 
to eat of it seated. The lamb that was slain had to be 
roasted by fire; it then became the basis of the feast; 
they stood around the table with their loins girt about, 
with their staves in their hands as men ready for flight. 
Another significant fact is this, that when Israel had 
taken their flight, and crossed the Red Sea, they by that 
act declared they had left Egypt behind them, had re- 
nounced the land and everything in that land; by the 
crossing of the Red Sea, drew a line of demarkation ; had 
left Egypt with its idols, and the hopes they cherished lay 
in the land that lay before; and, although that was a 
great deliverance when the old bondage was broken, yet 
remember, my friends, when they were brought out and 
delivered free men on the other side, with the whole 
world before them, recollect the great duties resting upon 
freemen. Before, they were passive subjects ; they never 
had to think or act, and had no responsibilities ; but now 
all the responsibilities of freemen devolved upon them; 
and if they had been loyal to the leader, if they had been 
faithful to the obligations upon them, had they been will- 
ing to separate themselves from all idolatrous practice, 
and all sins, and steadfastly pursued their march until the 
Jordan was passed, then the Apostle's prayer for Israel 
would have been answered, when he said, "My heart's 
desire and prayer for Israel is that they might be saved" ; 
and they would have been saved had they been true to 
their responsibilities and trusts as free people. My 
friends, I scarcely know a more disappointing history, 
when I remember they had not gone three days' journey 
in the great wilderness before they began to murmur and 
to chide with Moses ; when I remember what sins they 
fell into, what lusts debased them; when I remember, 
that that people even made to themselves idols, and said, 
14 



210 SERMONS. 

"These be thy gods, O Israel"; when I remember how 
they broke the covenant, and by breaking their most 
sacred obligations they were arrested on their march, and 
how that wide wilderness was sprinkled with graves, 
graves scarred every plain, so that the track of the march 
is marked by graves, by skeletons and bleached bones of 
those who had fallen in the wilderness. Just as in the 
grand march of Napoleon from Moscow, the route from 
Russia to France was traced by the stiffened bodies of 
French soldiers frozen in death — men who died on their 
way to the home which they never reached — the route 
all marked, for hundreds of miles, by the dead men, who 
lay on the interminable plains of frost and snow. These 
things the Apostle said were written for our admonition 
and our warning, and they were written for this purpose, 
my friends, to remind us that enlisting is not the way to 
make a soldier, enlisting is the initiation step ; putting on 
uniform is not making a soldier; going through holiday 
drill is not making a soldier. You ask what it is that 
makes a soldier? I answer, it is the campaign, it is the 
march, it is the bivouac, it is the hunger, cold and thirst, 
it is battling with the storm, it is resisting the withering 
heat, it is the contest itself; it is the front of battle, it is 
not the bloody front, but the centre of the storm — these 
are the things. Let us impress the importance of making 
a profession of religion, but let us not lay too much stress 
on the profession itself. It is a noble thing to stand up 
and bear our testimony that we are on the Lord's side, but 
that is only testimony of the lips, the life has to bear 
witness to the sincerity. And this is another significant 
fact connected with the Passover: it is a story, a sacred 
fragment of ecclesiastical history of especial interest to 
us, associated from the fact of its connection with the 
ordinance in which we have special and peculiar interest 



"WHAT MEAN YE BY THIS SERVICE?" 211 

to-day. I need not remind you that there was no sacra- 
ment instituted among the old Hebrews so important or 
so impressive as the Passover ; I need not tell you it was 
a typical shadow of the coming Christ ; it was a pictorial 
representation of what Christ would be ; it was the great 
type which pointed forward to the coming Messiah, which 
should fulfil everything signified in the Passover; as, for 
example, it was the lamb which had to be slain, and who 
does not know that one of the favorite names sacred 
writers give to our Lord is that gentle sacred name ? You 
recollect, when John walked up and down the banks of 
the Jordan, his eye was riveted by one approaching, and 
as Christ drew near, John bore testimony, "Behold the 
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world !" 
Then how often, through the various gospels and epistles, 
and then in the Book of Revelation, we find Christ in the 
figure of a lamb; and at last we see the throne of God 
and of the Lamb ; and at last, when we see the company 
of the redeemed in glory, then it is the Lamb who feeds 
them, and leads them to those living fountains of water, 
which satisfy thirst forever, in that place where God 
wipes all tears from weeping eyes ; it was the Lamb, the 
slain Lamb. And when the memorable time came in the 
history of our Lord, when he had fulfilled the great work 
for which he came into the world, with only the single 
exception of what was presently to take place in Geth- 
semane, and what thereafter took place on the cross, he 
gathered his disciples around him, and said, "With desire 
I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I 
suffer." It was the last Passover that would be lawfully 
celebrated. 

Children who grew up, and had been instructed by the 
parents knew that the Passover pointed back to their 
deliverance from the land of bondage into the admission 



2i2 SERMONS. 

in the Promised Land ; it pointed forward to the coming 
of the Messiah. 

So the Lord's Supper, which pointed back, and would 
point back to the end of time to the night in which he was 
betrayed, when he took that bread, and said, "This is my 
body which is broken for you," also should point forward, 
not to his coming, for he had already come, but to his 
second coming, and this ordinance points to his second 
coming. 

I also want to call your attention to this fact, which 
deserves more attention than is generally given it. I do 
not know any people I pity more from my heart than those 
people who tell me they do not care much for the Old 
Testament; when they tell their pastor this it grieves 
him from the heart, because he knows how much these 
people lose. Now, as an instance of this, when the 
Apostle says, "Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, 
therefore let us keep the feast," you would never have 
understood that if it had not been for the Old Testament 
history ; he might have used any other word — Arabic or 
Aramaic — and it would have had as much sense. You 
have to go back to this Old Testament history, back to 
the book of Exodus, and read these fragments which I 
read you this morning ; in fact, the gospel is virtually the 
same in the New as in the Old Testament ; the New Tes- 
tament is contained in the Old, the Old is fully explained 
in the New. This sacramental supper, which our Lord 
instituted, was the golden clasp which bound together the 
old dispensation and the new; it was the bridge which 
spanned the gulf between Malachi and Matthew; it was 
the perpetuation of the Passover, not the abolition, as we 
are often told. When our Lord instituted this supper, 
you make a mistake when you say the Passover was 
abolished; it was not abolished at all, for the Apostle 



"WHAT MEAN YE BY THIS SERVICE?" 213 

says, "Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, there- 
fore let us keep the feast." It was abolished just in the 
sense that the sapling is abolished when it grows into a. 
magnificent oak; it was abolished just in the sense that 
your babe is abolished when it becomes a grown man ; it 
was abolished just as dawn was abolished when the sun 
rose from the eastern sky; it was abolished in the sense 
it was fulfilled and perpetuated. "Christ our Passover is 
sacrificed for us, and therefore let us keep the feast." 

And now, when your children ask you, "Father, 
mother, what mean you by this service ?" oh ! Christian 
parents, tell them what the Passover is, and what the 
Lord's Supper is ; what its blessings and benefits are ; 
how it gives young men and women, youth and children 
courage, putting them right before God and the world. 
No man is right until he comes out on the Lord's side. 
Tell your children this is their great opportunity of pro- 
fessing their faith in Christ, and declaration that they 
believe they are among those who have been redeemed ; 
they want to bear testimony. Christians are purchased 
in order to dedicate themselves to his service, and spend 
long and useful lives in serving God and their fellow-men. 
Oh ! beloved brethren, Christ our sacrifice, our Christ, 
invites us to-day. 

It will add to the joy of a good many of these parents 
to know they will not come alone. It may be you do not 
have your children with you in the house to-day ; never 
mind, they are somewhere ; and if they are God's children 
they are bound to you by a tie stronger than that of blood 
— the strongest ties are those that bind us first to Christ, 
then to one another. What a spectacle is a whole family 
united in Christian love ! Do you know any spectacle 
more lovely than father, mother and all the children gath- 
ered at the table of the Lord's Supper? Yes, my friends, 



214 SERMONS. 

I can tell you of one more beautiful than that ; you may 
be surprised to hear there is anything more beautiful than 
that, but I am going to tell you of something : it is when, 
at the marriage supper of the Lamb, when all of us are 
passed through the gates into the bright paradise beyond, 
when all the redeemed sit down at the marriage supper 
of the Lamb, the sweetest spectacle will be witnessed 
there when parents sit down with their children, and turn 
to their great and glorious Lord and Saviour, and say, 
"Here, Lord, are we and the children whom thou hast 
given us." A family saved and communing together on 
earth is a beautiful spectacle, but oh! a family redeemed 
and sitting down at that festal board of heaven, over 
which is the banner of love and peace — oh ! that is a 
spectacle that will give the joys of heaven new thrill, and 
the happiness of heaven's pardon a sweeter bliss. 



XVII. 
HIS HOUR AND HIS PRAYER. 

"Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Shall I say, 
Father, save me from this hour? No, but for this cause came I 
unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then there came a 
voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify 
it again." — John xii. 27, 28. 

WHEN what Jesus called his "hour" approached, his 
dejection evidently increased; the sorrow that 
had shrouded all his life deepened as he approached the 
terminus of that life. There was no time when he did 
not walk beneath the shadow of the cross ; it was not the 
shadow, but that which casts the shadow — the cross 
itself. But now he was in sight of that cross, and that 
very week he was to die upon it. One of the last sorrows 
which pierced him was the fact that he had come unto 
his own, and his own received him not : he had come to 
the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and they did not own 
their Messiah, but rejected the great salvation which he 
came to bring. Just as the Jewish world closed against 
him, the Gentile world suddenly seemed to open its doors 
to welcome him. And then came the most extraordinary 
incident. At the very time when he was shrouded in this 
gloom, with all the agony of the garden and of Golgotha 
immediately before him, he had a visit from certain for- 
eigners, who are here called "the Greeks," who came from 
their remote homes with an ardent desire to have an 
interview with Christ; and, as the most natural thing in 
the world, they went to Philip to ask him to arrange for 



2i6 SERMONS. 

an interview. And Philip went and told Andrew, and the 
two together went with the petition of the Greeks to the 
Lord, that they might have an opportunity of conversing 
with him. They said, "Sirs, we would see Jesus." This 
is a feeble translation of these words, because in the 
original it means the most intense desire, the most reso- 
lute resolve — that if it was possible they would see 
Jesus. And this is what I want to fix for the moment in 
your minds. This petition from these Greeks, which was 
brought by the two disciples who had Greek names (and 
the only two that had Greek names), produced a profound 
impression upon Christ himself, and marked a new era in 
his life, and a new era in the history of the world. He 
came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel — primarily 
that was his mission; but now, after this interview with 
the Greeks, we have brought to us the universality of his 
mission; the time was now coming when the house, the 
holy house in whose courts they were then standing, 
should be the house of prayer for all nations, and when 
he would be lifted up, and the spectacle of that elevation 
would draw all men unto him. We have now arrived at 
that period in the history of our Lord when his mission 
was no longer limited, but when the gates of gospel 
grace that had stood only ajar were thrown wide open 
to all the Gentile world. 

There is a sense in which this great fact constituted an 
"hour" in the life of our Lord — as it marked the begin- 
ning of a new era — but this is not the sense in which he 
used the word; his immediate reference was not to an 
era of gladness, but of deepest gloom. It marks the time 
when he began to taste the bitterness of what awaited 
him when he went to Gethsemane, when he ascended the 
cross. I 

There is something very strange in this perturbation 



HIS HOUR AND HIS PRAYER. 217 

of our Lord : the fact is, we cannot help being perturbed 
ourselves, being affected with a strong and solemn sym- 
pathy, when we hear Jesus say, "Now is my soul 
troubled," when we remember that he was ordinarily so 
calm, so unruffled, that he maintained such sweet compo- 
sure during all the exigencies of his life. Oh ! there is 
no trouble like soul trouble. "Now is my soul troubled, 
and what shall I say, where shall I look?" Not to his 
disciples, although they were ready, no doubt, to give him 
their tenderest sympathy ; but what could their sympathy 
do for his soul trouble? What could it do when his soul 
was transfixed with that pang of anticipated woe? There 
was only one thing he could do, and that was to lift his 
eyes above the hills, even to God who made heaven and 
earth, and find his sweetest solace in remembering that 
God was his Father. 

And now comes the question : Shall I say, Father, save 
me from this hour? The humanity of our Lord must 
have tempted him to offer that prayer — to offer the 
prayer that he might be saved from the approaching 
anguish that made his "hour" — hour memorable in the 
world's annals. But this he could not do : it was for that 
hour that he came into the world, and inasmuch as the 
object of his coming would thus have been thwarted, he 
could not ask to be delivered from the impending trial ; 
and, therefore, he changed the tone of the prayer, and the 
entire subject of it, and said, "Father, glorify thy name." 
Oh! that I could make vivid to your consciousness the 
connection between the different phrases in this text — 
between the question he would not ask, and the prayer he 
did offer, "Father, glorify thy name." 

What is it to glorify the divine name ? I answer : In 
the Bible a name stands for a character — a name repre- 
sents an attribute, or a cluster — a constellation of attri- 



218 SERMONS. 

butes — just as in secular history a name is a synonym 
for some distinguishing characteristic. So we sometimes 
speak of Solon, and of Solomon as synonyms of wisdom ; 
we speak of Aristides as another name for justice; and 
Howard, a name for philanthropy. And so we may go 
through secular and sacred history, and find that the 
mention of many notable names suggest the virtues ever 
associated with them. The same thing is true with 
regard to the divine name, and when the prayer, "Glorify 
thy name," is offered, it means, "Make a manifestation 
of thy character" — make such a revelation of thy being, 
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth as 
to make thy name the centre of human regard ; and not 
only attract human attention, but human affection and 
devotion. Let the whole world see something of thine 
infinite perfections, and so be filled with the adoration and 
love becoming those who can appreciate what is highest, 
purest and best in the universe. This is its meaning. 

In order to impress us more deeply with the import- 
ance of this incident, we are told that heaven gave 
audible expression of its approval : when Christ offered 
this prayer, there came the emphatic response, "I have 
both glorified it, and will glorify it again." On three 
most memorable occasions in the history of our Lord 
heaven bore an open testimony, that the world might hear 
and understand the sympathy that heaven had with the 
sufferer upon earth. At the time of our Lord's baptism, 
when that rite was concluded, we are told that there came 
a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased." When he stood upon the 
Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elias, beneath 
the overshadowing cloud, out of that cloud there came a 
voice, saying, "This is my beloved Son ; hear ye him" — 
and at that moment Christ was inaugurated as the 



HIS HOUR AND HIS PRAYER. 219 

supreme teacher of the world. And now, at the period 
he calls his "hour," when he put up this petition, "Glorify 
thy name," again the voice resounded through the 
heavens above him, saying, "I have both glorified it, and 
will glorify it again." First, by the river ; then from the 
mountain top, and then from the temple did these re- 
sponses come. 

Yes, it was the supreme hour in the history of our 
Lord. I go a great deal further, and I say it was the 
supreme hour in the history of the world. It was the 
hour when all prophecy was finding its fulfilment. Those 
of you who attended to the reading of the fifty-third 
chapter of Isaiah remember that the sufferings of our 
Lord were enumerated so minutely in that chapter that it 
sounds more like history than a prediction ; indeed, the 
faith of the prophet transported him to the distant future ; 
that he spoke in the past tense, although seven hundred 
years were to elapse before one of these sufferings were 
endured: he said, "He was wounded for our transgres- 
sions ; he was bruised for our iniquities" — his faith 
overleaping the centuries, he spoke, not as a prophet, but 
as a historian. All these propecies of ancient writ were 
finding their fulfilment at this memorable hour. And 
more than that: this hour was marking a new division 
in the religious condition of the world; now was taking 
place a separation between the old dispensation and the 
new ; now the Levitical era was vanishing forever ; now 
the gates of the gospel were opening for the entrance of 
all nations. A little while ago it was the paschal lamb ; 
now it is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 
Under the old dispensation it was a smitten rock ; now it 
is the shepherd of the sheep that is smitten. Under the 
old dispensation it was a brazen serpent lifted up ; under 
the gospel economy it is the Christ lifted up upon the 



220 SERMONS. 

cross, that he might draw all men unto him. Under the 
old dispensation it was Canaan, the land that God had 
prepared as the home of his rescued people ; now the 
church is to look forward to a land of which that earthly 
Canaan was but a type, a clouded type — a land where the 
saints of all ages meet in perfect harmony, a land which 
shall be the home of the saved and the glorified. What a 
change was now taking place in the religious aspect of 
the whole world ! 

Such was his "hour." He would not ask the Father 
to save him from it, because if he had done so he would 
have failed to save the world ; it was the hour upon which 
the salvation of the world was depending, and therefore 
it was that he said, "I cannot pray to be delivered from 
this hour, but I can pray, and do, that my Father's name 
may be glorified." Oh ! I want you to notice the infinite 
pathos of that prayer, when you remember that the prayer 
might not be answered except by the crucifixion of the 
Christ that offered it. When our Lord said, "Glorify thy 
name," it was with the full understanding of the fact 
that that name could only be glorified by his transfixed 
hands and feet, and by the awful weight of wrath and 
woe that pressed down upon his innocent soul — only by 
the darkened heaven and the shrouding of the divine face 
that had always shed down the light of love upon him! 
This was the price at which God's name was to be 
glorified. 

So we find that Christ took occasion at this very mo- 
ment to give some instructions to his disciples that let in 
a new light upon their minds, a light that continues to 
shine for our illumination as well as theirs. He said, 
"You take a grain of wheat and put it in a casket, or in 
the wrappings of a mummy, and it will remain a grain of 
wheat for a thousand years. But put it in the ground; 



HIS HOUR AND HIS PRAYER. 221 

it dies, but in time a germ comes from it, and up comes 
the blade, and the full corn in the ear, so that a single 
grain of wheat produces a hundred grains, and these 
hundred a thousand, and these thousand when sown pro- 
duce food for men through all the cultivated, arable lands 
of the world. Such was to be the effect of his death, and 
therefore he said that he would be like a seed cast in the 
ground, from which would spring the tree whose leaves 
were for the healing of the nations — on Calvary he 
would plant the cross upon which he would be lifted up, 
and make it the centre of all attractive influences, and 
draw all men unto him. 

Let us see how Christ illustrated this, and confirmed 
it by his own life : how did he teach that the glory of the 
Father should be the chief end of men in the world? 
He taught it by his own manifestation of the Father, his 
own personal representation of what God was. We talk 
about attributes, we talk about wisdom, and goodness, 
and justice, and love; we have vague and dreamy ideas 
of these abstract perfections. They become incarnate 
when we see the power of the God-man over the elements, 
the winds and waves, over diseases, and the power over 
the dead, power over all the realm of matter and of spirit ; 
then you have an exhibition of the divine omnipotence 
with a new comprehension of its meaning. We talk about 
the goodness of God, of the love of God ; but, ah ! we 
cannot understand them until we see the Son of man 
pardoning the penitent, healing the sick, comforting the 
sorrowing; going about doing good, drying the tears of 
the bereaved, speaking peace to the troubled conscience. 
We cannot comprehend the love of God until we see the 
Son of God offering himself a voluntary sacrifice for the 
sins of the world, bearing the whole load of human guilt, 
that humanity may escape the penalty. The manifestation 



222 SERMONS. 

of the Father in the person of the Son was made known 
when our Lord said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father." I have no doubt that some of you, in some of 
the sculpture galleries of the world, have seen a marble 
figure with a veil drawn over the face, and that marble 
veil was so thin, so delicate — so exquisite was the skill 
of the sculptor — that you could see through it the sweet 
face beyond. In the humanity of our Lord this delicate 
veil was so transparent that men could look through, and 
see the perfections of the Father's glory, and the express 
image of his person. 

Christ also glorified his Father by giving the world a 
prayer that taught that the divine glory must come before 
everything else that can be asked for in our petitions. We 
call it the Lord's Prayer. There is one petition in it that 
is personal, "Give us this day our daily bread." This 
applies to our material wants. There is another, "Forgive 
us our trespasses" ; and these are absolutely all we are to 
ask for ourselves in this prayer. All the rest refers to 
God, and the glory of his name. How does it commence ? 
"Hallowed be thy name" — that comes before the cry for 
bread that sustains our bodies. "Thy kingdom come": 
here we are to seek that kingdom first. You would like to 
have your own way, but listen, "Thy will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven ; for thine is the kingdom, and 
thine is the power, and thine is the glory for ever and 
ever." The Lord's Prayer is the most intense rebuke of 
selfishness that could be made in human language? Is 
there anywhere such a commentary on the command, 
"Seek first the kingdom of heaven!" It begins and ends 
with petitions for the manifestation of God's glory, and 
everything else comes in as an incident. 

Christ glorified the Father, not only by giving us this 
model of prayer, and by teaching us how to pray in a 



HIS HOUR AND HIS PRAYER. 223 

manner that would be agreeable and acceptable, but by 
his death; by his atoning death he made it possible for 
sinners to be forgiven, made it possible for unnumbered 
souls to be brought finally to glory. 

I close my sermon by saying this : I have shown you 
how Christ manifested the Father, and the attributes of 
the Father's glory, and now I want to say something a 
little more personal and practical. I want to know what 
the specific instruction is to you, individually, and what 
concern you have this day, this moment, in the text upon 
which I am preaching. I want to say that ofttimes our 
prayers are intensely selfish, as we ask God to bless us 
and those of our household. All that is right, as far as it 
goes, and in all good prayers these petitions may appro- 
priately come ; but it is a very poor prayer that begins 
for ourselves, and never goes beyond the four walls in 
which our family resides. Our prayers for the church 
are ofttimes very selfish. People pray for the extension 
of God's kingdom: there are a great many so full of 
sectarian pride that that means only that God will bless 
the denomination to which they belong; some have the 
mistaken idea that they are praying for Christ's kingdom, 
when it is only a sectarian zeal, a denominational passion 
with them ; it is a very selfish prayer, because it does not 
take in all the true, invisible church for which Christ died, 
and which he means to save. This text comes as a sort of 
check, to teach us that we must not limit our petitions to 
ourselves or those nearest to us, but must go beyond the 
pale of the denomination to which we belong, and take in 
all true Christians. 

"Father, glorify thy name" — and only thine. In the 
day in which we live we are constantly impressed with 
the fact that the great fortunes that men accumulate oft- 
times are dissipated just as rapidly, or even more so, that 



224 SERMONS. 

they are acquired, under the commercial distress that 
prevails throughout the world. And there never was a 
time when men took the loss of fortune so much to heart 
as now. One of the most extraordinary things is that 
there are more suicides now for the loss of money than 
ever known since the world began. You read an account 
of a suicide, and then the narrative says, "He was very 
much embarrassed in his business affairs." There have 
been a hundred illustrations of it since this year began, 
although we are so early in it. Now when a man is 
threatened with the loss of property, he is threatened with 
something very serious. It is very serious ; but the first 
thought of a Christian man ought to be, "Did I desire 
this simply to get out of it of my own pleasure, or as a 
trustee for him who gave it to me? Not only for the 
support of those depending upon me, and the gratification 
of my lawful wishes, but as an agent for humanity, to 
instruct the ignorant, to enlighten the darkened, to bring 
back the lost to the great salvation." The great prayer 
ought to be, "Father, so order this, and bring to a con- 
clusion all the perplexing issues of life that my soul may 
be benefited, and thy name glorified." 

Sometimes a man is in danger of suffering a prodig- 
ious amount of loss of standing by or espousing some 
unpopular cause, something that other people repudiate, 
a principle that he believes to be vital to humanity, and it 
requires true courage for a man to stand alone in the 
defence of what he believes to be right. Devotion to 
honor and principle is something that God himself in- 
spires in human souls, and there is nothing that God 
gives men more honorable than this devotion to truth, 
and there are no more noble men than those that stand 
unflinchingly for the truth and the right. When a man 
is put in such a position, the great question is, "Is this 



HIS HOUR AND HIS PRAYER. 225 

right in the sight of God? Am I standing upon the 
ground I ought to occupy? Father, so help me through 
this crisis, make me so true, and brave, and so careful of 
consequences, that I may glorify thy name." That is 
what every true reformer did, what Luther did when he 
was before the Diet. When he was commanded to recant, 
he said, "Here I stand, God help me; I cannot stand 
anywhere else." It was the courage of Knox, and of all 
the great reformers : they maintained the cause of truth, 
and, heedless of the world, prayed, "Glorify thy name." 
That was the spirit of all the martyrs : they were willing 
to go through fire rather than recant, and their supreme 
wish was demonstrated upon the scaffold and amidst 
flaming tongues of fire, "Glorify thy name ; and may I be 
so loyal to the truth as never to be ashamed of it." 

There is another way in which we may glorify his 
name. Ah ! me, I will tell you when it is hard to say, 
"Thy will be done." It is when we are standing by the 
bedside of some sufferer dear to us, for whom we would 
willingly lay down our life, and when we see life slowly 
ebbing away. "O Father, save me from this hour; any- 
thing but this !" I do not say it is wrong to offer that 
prayer, to ask the God who gave us love to spare the 
loved one's life. He may not answer our prayer, because 
his will is always better than ours, and his love greater 
than ours. But never, never in the world do we so much 
glorify our Father's name as when in circumstances like 
these we say, "Thy will be done. Father, glorify thy 
name." I feel like I was standing on very thin ice — on 
holy ground — because if I ask myself the question if 
one dearest to me in all the world was slowly wasting 
away by some necessarily mortal disease, would I be able 
to say, "Father, glorify thy name," without saying, "Fa- 
ther, spare me" ! I do not know ; I can only pray he 
IS 



226 SERMONS. 

would give me grace in that exigency. But this I do 
know, that we never glorify God more than when we say, 
"We do not know whether it is best for this loved one to 
live or die, but in either case, Father, glorify thy name." 
These are some of the lessons of this most impressive, 
instructive portion of Scripture to which I have called 
your attention this morning. 



XVIII. 
HIS HANDS AND HIS SIDE. 

"He showed them his hands and his side." — John xx. 20. 

TWO of the Evangelists describe this manifestation 
of our Lord, this peculiar form of manifestation 
when he showed to his disciples his hands and his side. 
We find one of these accounts in the Gospel of Luke, in 
which we are told that on the evening of the day of the 
resurrection, when the disciples were all gathered together 
in very great trepidation, and in very great apprehension 
of what might befall them, that two of the number who 
had walked that afternoon to Emmaus had been joined on 
their walk by Jesus, that he had conversed with them, 
and opened their understandings to comprehend the 
prophecies of Scripture with regard to him, and that just 
as they recognized him he vanished out of their sight. 
What a parable that is of what has been happening ever 
since — that just as we learn how dear our friends are 
and how necessary to us, we lose them. Just as we have 
attained the wisdom which long experience gives, we die, 
and the world loses the benefit of all the lessons we might 
give. Just as we learn to appreciate any great privilege, 
in the act of recognizing its value and its sweetness, it 
passes away. He vanished out of their sight, but the 
wondering disciples, filled with the happy tidings which 
they had to communicate, came to where their brethren 
were gathered together, and told them that Jesus had 
appeared to them bv the way : and while they were speak- 
ing, Christ himself suddenly appeared in the centre of 



228 SERMONS. 

the group, and said, "Peace be unto you." Notwith- 
standing that tranquilizing benediction, they were af- 
frighted, and thought they saw a spirit. Then we are 
told that our Lord showed them his hands and his feet, 
and said, "Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh 
and bones as ye see me have." This was his demonstra- 
tion of his true humanity. This was the demonstration 
given to the world by the incarnate God, that he had a 
true body as well as a reasonable soul: that he was not 
only the Son of God with power, but that he was the Son 
of man, and that he took upon him our humility for the 
purpose of doing what Deity pure and simple could not 
do — the Spirit could not bleed and die upon the cross. 
Therefore, our Lord took upon him our flesh that he 
might make himself one with us, that he might be identi- 
fied with us, that we might be brought nearer to him by 
the ties of sympathy, that he might feel with us and for 
us, that he might suffer for us, that he might die for us. 
He assumed our humanity to show what that humanity 
was before sin tainted it, and to recall to the world what 
redeemed humanity was to be when Christ should glorify 
it, and when glory should ennoble it. 

One of the great essential doctrines of religion is the 
doctrine of the incarnation. I need not tell you that this 
doctrine is not peculiar to Christianity alone. All re- 
ligions have had something of the kind, but no incarna- 
tion that could be subjected to the test of experiment, no 
incarnation that could be determined by the demonstration 
of those that could see and hear and touch. The classic 
republics of old, in their beautiful mythologies, told us of 
deities that assumed human form, but no Olympian Jove 
ever sat upon a mountain side with twelve disciples about 
him ; no beautiful Apollo ever walked through the coun- 
try or through the streets of crowded cities followed by 



HIS HANDS AND HIS SIDE. 229 

those who sought instruction from his lips ; no wise 
Minerva was ever surrounded by those who watched her 
beautiful life or who tried to pattern after the model 
which she gave them of truth and goodness. None of 
these mythological deities was ever seen by disciples that 
professed to worship them, and none of the worshippers 
of the deities to whom I have referred ever pretended 
that they had held any converse with them, or that any 
one of them was betrayed by a Judas and crucified on a 
cross. Therein the incarnation of Christ stands single 
and alone in its mournful and adorable beauty. Christ is 
the Christ of history. His incarnation is one taken away 
from the great domain of fiction, and transferred to the 
great realm of fact. It is contrary to all that we would 
have anticipated : that one whose life was so lonely as 
that of Christ, that one whose nation and race was so 
abhorred of the world, that he was rejected of that very 
nation, rejected by his own people, and put to an igno- 
minious death. It is truly contrary to all that the world 
ever would have imagined in the sphere of possibility ; 
that his should have been an influence that ultimately 
pervaded the world, and that he who was elevated upon 
the cross should attract more human eyes, and draw to 
him more human hearts than all the kings and sages that 
ever have taught or tried to bless mankind. If you will 
take the trouble to look over the map of Europe, you 
cannot find a nation whose people do not regard the cross 
as the emblem of what is greatest and purest and best. 
Even among those nations which are most thickly over- 
laid, overcrusted with superstition, and where the falsest 
forms of religion prevail, still you will hardly find a 
citizen of one of these countries that would not be 
offended if you were to tell him that he did not care for 
the cross, that he did not belong to a Christian nation. 



2 3 o SERMONS. 

But there is a narrow circle within that wide, outlying- 
circle of those who owe a fealty and an allegiance to 
Christ, whose strength cannot be surpassed by any of the 
bonds that unite human beings here upon earth, be the 
ties what they may. Christ died eighteen hundred years 
ago, and yet the memory of that self-sacrifice is so fresh 
that if it had happened yesterday human hearts would 
hardly be more moved by it than they are at present. If 
you want the demonstration of that, I have it. I have it 
in the fact that there are millions of men and women 
to-day who would go to the stake, and die a death of 
torture before they would renounce their allegiance to 
Christ, or deny the Lord that bought them. I do not care 
to argue when I have an overwhelming fact like that to 
defend. 

The other occasion upon which our Lord manifested 
himself similarly was on the evening of the resurrection, 
as related in the Gospel of John, when the disciples were 
all gathered together, except one, and that was Thomas. 
It was a most unfortunate thing for Thomas that he was 
absent. I heard the venerable president of one of our 
colleges say that when he was a young man he made a 
resolution, and that was never to omit one of the ap- 
pointed services of the church lest he might miss some- 
thing that day upon which his salvation might turn. I 
know that there is a day when most people hear the ser- 
mon that God blesses to their conversion, and it would be 
a sad thing for one to be absent at a time when, if he had 
been present and listened to the appeal from the Word of 
God, made effectual by the Spirit of God, he might have 
been converted. Oh ! sad for that man to be away without 
reason. Thomas had a week of darkness, of perplexity 
and unbelief and unhappiness in consequence of his ab- 
sence. If he had been present, he would have met the 



HIS HANDS AND HIS SIDE. 231 

Lord. He missed the chance of meeting with the risen 
Christ, and when those days passed, and the disciples 
were gathered together again, and when they told Thomas 
of what had happened, he said, "Except I see I will not 
believe. Unless I put my finger in the print of the nails, 
unless I put my hand into his side I will not believe." 
And with the most wonderful pity and patience and con- 
descension, our Lord told Thomas that if he chose he 
could subject him to the test. "Reach hither thy finger, 
and touch that wound. Thrust thy hand into my side, 
and be not faithless, but believing." I do not believe that 
Thomas had the hardihood to subject his Lord to that 
rude test, but I think that when the Lord showed Thomas 
his hands and his side, that Thomas was overcome, and 
cried out, with a rapture of faith, "My Lord and my 
God." 

I do not believe that if men had invented the Bible, 
and had invented the history of our Lord's life upon 
earth, that they would have represented him, after his 
resurrection, as coming back to the world in a mutilated 
form, and bearing upon his body those scars that seemed 
to deform him, and at least to remind people of his humil- 
iation and sad death upon the cross. Men would never 
have portrayed such a spiritual hero as Christ in that 
form. They would have said, "Oh ! no, whatever he 
might have endured during his ministry upon earth, after 
he went through the ordeal of death, came back from the 
world of spirits, and reappeared once more among men 
before he went up to his heaven, let us efface every mark 
of that humiliation that would remind men of his de- 
grading death upon Calvary." Not so; our Lord took 
pains to show his hands and his side. And what do I 
understand, my friends, by that exhibition that Christ 
made of himself? I understand, among other things, this, 



232 SERMONS. 

that when our Lord came back from the eternal world 
where he had for a short time gone, while his body was 
lying in the cold tomb, he came back with precisely the 
affections in his heart that he had before he died upon the 
cross. If one of your friends were to come back from 
heaven, and sojourn with you here upon earth, and you 
knew he was coming, would you not be very doubtful as 
to how you could entertain him ? Would you not be very 
doubtful as to what he would find in your house or in 
your conversation or in your life that would interest him, 
who had come down from excellent glory? Would you 
not be filled with wonderful perplexity to know how such 
a guest should be entertained? Oh! such changes must 
have taken place in all his views, in all his feelings about 
things that he can not now be interested any more in the 
affairs of this life ! But when Christ came back he 
showed his hands and his side to remind the people that 
he was the same suffering Saviour that he was before he 
went down into the garden, and before he went up to the 
cross, and that he had not been changed at all by the 
dread experience through which he had passed — that 
awful experience which one has when his soul goes be- 
yond the veil, and knows what is there. He came back 
and showed them his hands and his side. Thus we learn, 
my friends, that we have an unchanging Saviour ; that he 
is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. One of the 
most delightful truths that we can know about Christ is 
this, that he not only brought back and manifested the 
scars and the wounds that he received in his conflict, but 
that he went to heaven in the same body; and we are 
told that he appears there among the heavenly worship- 
pers as the Lamb that had been slain, still bearing the 
marks of the slaughter upon him. What does this teach 
us? It teaches us this, that Christ's death, so far from 



HIS HANDS AND HIS SIDE. 233 

being the end of his career, was only the beginning of it. 
When you die, your career is stopped. When they put 
you down in the grave and cover you up, you are done ; 
but, my friends, Christ's history only began with his 
death. By his death he only entered upon a new sphere, 
and a new department of service. St. Luke said, when 
he began to write the Acts of the Apostles, "The former 
treatise have I written unto you of all that Jesus began to 
do and to teach," and that was what he recorded in his 
gospel ; now he goes on to write the Acts of the Apostles, 
to tell what Jesus was still doing. We call his book the 
''Acts of the Apostles, and that will do for a name until 
you get a better one ; but it is not the acts of the apostles, 
it is the acts of Christ through the apostles, Christ work- 
ing for the establishment and extension of his church 
through the world, and having his appointed ministers 
ordained for that purpose. And when we remember that 
Christ, even in glory, wears the same body which was 
crucified, and that upon that sacred body there are the 
marks of the wounds in the hands and in the side, what 
do we learn? We learn the precious doctrine of his 
eternal intercession. It is not necessary for Christ to 
make vocal intercession. Sometimes prayer unspoken is 
the most powerful and prevailing. Every wound speaks 
of his love, and every wound appeals to the Father in 
behalf of those still here upon earth. 

"Five bleeding wounds he bears; 
They strongly plead for me. 
'Forgive ! forgive !' they ever cry, 
'Nor let the ransomed sinner die.' ' 

The fact that Christ came back after his resurrection 
with the wounds in his hands and in his side, and that he 
went up to heaven carrying the same wounds, is proof of 



234 SERMONS. 

one of the greatest truths, that we have an unchanging 
Christ, the same yesterday, to-day and (blessed be his 
name ! ) the same forever. 

The fact that Christ showed his hands and his side 
also teaches us another great truth. It teaches us how 
much importance he attached to his redeeming work. I 
pause just a second, until you get that idea into your 
minds. I want you to take the point and see it. I say, 
the fact that Christ took pains to exhibit his wounds 
shows what an importance he attaches to the redemption 
that he purchased for man by his precious blood. It 
shows that what Christ valued was not only his instruc- 
tions, valuable as they were; not only his miracles, stu- 
pendous as they were; not only his beautiful life, lovely 
as it was ; not only these, but that he regarded his death 
as the great fact of the world's history, and the atone- 
ment the central doctrine of the world's faith. He shows 
his hands and his feet and his side in order, in the last 
place, that in contemplating this sacrifice, in looking upon 
this reminder of how our salvation was purchased, we 
might have our gratitude awakened, our affections 
sweetly drawn out toward him, and that we might love 
him in return for a love that cost him so much. 

He showed them his hands, the very hands that the 
mothers wanted him to put upon their babes. "They 
brought young children unto him that he should touch 
them." I love to see the children in the church, seated 
by their parents and listening to the sermon, and it is a 
singular fact that children oftentimes listen as well as 
their parents. They brought young children to Christ 
that he should put his hands upon them, those hands of 
Christ that were afterwards pierced. Every mother said, 
"If the dear Lord would lay his hand upon my Rachel, 
upon my Ruth, if he would only lay his hand upon her 



HIS HANDS AND HIS SIDE. 235 

head, would not the gentle pressure of that hand be felt 
by her in all her days?" Never does our Lord seem so 
lovely as when he permits the children to clamber up in 
his lap, and when he takes them in his arms, and presses 
the dear little ones to his heart. These are the hands that 
were pierced; the hands that broke the loaves and dis- 
tributed them to the fainting multitude; the hand that 
reached down and grasped the dead hand of the little 
daughter of the ruler, and raised her up, and restored her 
to her father's love ; the hand that he laid upon the bier 
and stopped it, when they were carrying the young man 
to his burial, and when the widow of Nain, his broken- 
hearted mother, was walking next to the bier the chief 
mourner. This was the hand that was pierced, the hand 
that was lifted up in benediction the last time the disciples 
saw him, when the cloud was about to receive him out of 
sight. When he shows us those hands, my friends, they 
tell their own story, and there is a pathos in the appeal 
which those silent wounds make. 

He showed them his feet. Do you think there was a 
square acre in Palestine over which those feet, oftentimes 
in weariness, did not walk? He showed them his side, 
just under which beat that loving heart so full of sym- 
pathy that made him weep with the sisters when they 
stood at the grave of Lazarus, that made him mourn over 
ill-fated Jerusalem when he cried, "O that thou hadst 
known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace, 
but now they are hid from thine eyes." Oh ! my friends, 
this is the appeal of Christ when he shows his hands and 
his feet. That is the appeal he is making to us. Were 
you here the other day, when I preached on the text, 
''Behold, I stand at the door and knock," in which I rep- 
resented Christ as going around and knocking at every 
door ; that is, at every avenue by which any entrance can 



236 SERMONS. 

be obtained into the human heart, whether the intellectual 
avenue, the emotional avenue, at the door of memory, at 
the door of hope, at the door of gratitude? "Behold, I 
stand at the door and knock." My friends, that which is 
strange to me is that you are not more affected when 
Christ knocks there with a bleeding hand. That Christ 
should come and knock at the door of your heart with a 
bleeding hand, and knock so long, and be so patient with 
you, until you have reached the meridian of life, and are 
upon the downward slope, oh ! wonderful patience ! He 
stands with melting heart and bleeding hands, and says, 
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock." This is ex- 
hibited to us in a most impressive way in the sacramental 
service. There, if anywhere, our Lord re-enacts the scene 
that was witnessed by the disciples in Jerusalem. Take 
away that linen cloth, and what do you see ? The broken 
bread that reminds you of the broken body. The wine 
poured out reminds you of the crimson flow of his blood. 
There his body on the tree ! What an appeal this makes to 
Christian love ! Oh ! doubting, trembling believer, reach 
out the hand of faith, and touch that wounded side. 
Stretch forth thy finger, and put it in the print of the 
nails, and say — 

"Jesus, thy feast we celebrate, 

We show thy death, we sing thy name 
Till thou return, and we shall eat 
The marriage supper of the Lamb." 



XIX. 

"TEACH US TO PRAY." 

"It came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place 
alone on the seaside, one of his disciples came unto him, and said, 
Lord, teach us to pray." — Luke xi. I. 

IN preferring that request, the disciple unconsciously 
uttered a prayer, in the very act of asking to be taught 
to pray. The petition was an expression of ignorance 
needing instruction, of weakness needing help ; and so, 
in their conscious infirmity and need of divine direction 
and uplifting, they said, "Lord, teach us to pray." We 
are not by any means to infer from this that the disciples 
were not in the habit of prayer, or that this was the first 
time when they approached the Lord with a petition. 
Most of them had been familiar all their lives with the 
Jewish forms of prayer, and no doubt had oftentimes 
made devout use of them; but now something had just 
occurred which gave them a new conception of what 
prayer was. Our Lord, in accordance with his custom, 
having retired to a solitary place, was himself engaged 
in prayer. L'nintentionally, perhaps, his disciples ap- 
proached the place and overheard the petition which their 
Lord was offering. As they listened a new Lght broke 
in upon their minds ; a new conception seized them as to 
what prayer might be, for as Jesus prayed with upturned 
face, we may well imagine that he seemed to his wonder- 
ing disciples to be looking directly through heaven's gates 
upon the very face of the throne, and as, with confident 
step, he seemed to ascend the golden way that led to that 



238 SERMONS. g 

throne, and his heart glowed with new fervor and his 
face with new brightness as he approached tht excellent 
glory ; — so deeply affected were they by what they had 
been the involuntary hearers of, and by what they had 
unexpectedly witnessed, that, dissatisfied with th ir own 
prayers, they came to him and preferred the petition in 
the text, "Lord, teach us to pray." 

It is well for us, my friends, to have the scriptural ideal 
of what prayer may be. It would be well for us if we 
studied more than we do the scriptural modes of suc- 
cessful prayer. Oh ! how much we could have learned 
had 'we been permitted to overhear the petition which 
the oatriarch offered on that memorable night when he 
wrestled until the dawn of day with the traveller un- 
known ; wrestled with an importunity which found ex- 
pression in 'words like these, "I will not let thee go until 
thou bless me." How much we could have learned if we 
had listened to the prayer that Elijah offered when, in 
answer to his supplication, heaven was shut so that there 
was no rain upon the earth, and when, in answer to his 
appeal, heaven opened and the showers descended upon 
the thirsty ground. What instruction we might receive 
could we have heard the prayer of Daniel on that memora- 
ble night which you have been so lately considering in 
your International Sunday-School lessons, when, cast by 
the king into the den of lions, he was serene, unruffled 
and filled with peace, while the king that had ordered 
him to be placed there tossed from side to side with a 
guilty* conscience all night long, brooding over the wrong 
that he had done to God's dear servant. If we could only 
have heard the prayers which that man in such peril 
offered, the prayers that brought him unutterable, inef- 
fable peace ; or if we could have overheard David, when, 
with a broken heart, he cried out in his anguish and made 



"TEACH US TO PRAY." 239 

his penitent confession, and then uttered his fervent sup- 
plications as they are all recorded in the Fifty-first Psalm ; 
or if we could have overheard the prayers which the 
Apostle in the dungeon offered when he was ready for 
the great change which he knew was just at hand, and 
when, having fought the good fisrht and finished his work, 
there was nothing more for him to do but to receive his 
crown. But more memorable than any, more memorable 
than all these, was the prayer which the disciples had 
just heard, and which prompted them to come to Jesus 
and say, "Lord, teach us to pray." My friends, I think 
this is a very good petition for every one of us to adopt 
individually. We misrht very well make this the preface, 
the prelude, to all of our prayers. It would be a very 
proper prelude to those prayers which we offer in private, 
in secret, for sometimes our thouehts are verv wandering; 
sometimes our affections are all dull and dead, and we 
need the inspiration, we need the uplifting that can come 
onlv from heaven. We should then stir up the eift that 
is in us by commencing our prayers with a petition like 
this. "Lord, teach me at this very moment of my solemn 
approach, teach me how to pray." So, too, it would be 
very well for each member of the family silently to offer 
this petition just as the household gathers for family wor- 
ship, to say, "Lord, teach my father (or my mother, as 
the case may be) to lead us in the devotions of this morn- 
ing;" or, if not that, to say, "O teach us how to follow 
as we are led!" How well it would be, as we gather as 
a larger household, as one family in Christ Jesus, in our 
worship on the Sabbath day, if each one of us would 
say, "Touch the lips of thy ministering servant, O Lord, 
and anoint him with the heavenly unction, and may we 
all remember that his prayer is our prayer, and that when 
he is giving vocal utterance to these petitions he is only 



240 SERMONS. 

giving expression to our own desires. Lord, teach pastor 
and people together so to pray as to bring down divine 
benedictions this day." 

Now, the question naturally occurs, How is it that 
Christ teaches us to pray ? How does he fulfil his petition 
and answer it? In the first place, we are taught when 
we consider prayer as a custom consecrated by his own 
example; in the second place, by the encouragement it 
affords to those that seek God's face and favor; in the 
third place, by revealing what is the source and secret 
of all successful and acceptable prayer, viz., the example. 
Second, where do you want sweeter encouragement than 
you find in the verses which succeed this text, when our 
Lord reminds us that we have a Father in heaven whose 
care and sympathy for his children exceeds that of any 
earthly parent? "If ye know how to give good gifts to 
your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father 
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask?" Do you not 
know that when that great ascension gift is granted you 
may be sure you will be taught to pray for things that 
you ought to ask for, and in a manner, too, which will 
be acceptable to God? Third, the foundation, "What- 
soever you ask in my name," etc. 

Now, let us revert for a moment to the circumstances 
which preceded this request on the part of the disciples. 
What was it that led them to come to Christ with this 
petition? They had overheard, as I have reminded you, 
the prayer which Jesus offered in what was, at the begin- 
ning, a solitude, when he was alone, and yet filled with 
heavenly company, until his disciples came, uninvited and 
unexpectedly, to the place. There are two great truths 
set forth with equal clearness with regard to our Saviour 
in the Holy Scriptures. One is the fact of his deity, and 
the other is the fact of his humanity. It would be very 



"TEACH US TO PRAY." 241 

difficult to tell which was demonstrated most clearly. If 
we considered only his divinity, we might conclude that 
prayer was unnecessary for him, at least. That Christ 
was God was evident from the superhuman works that 
he wrought, from the stupendous miracles that testified 
to his omnipotence, as when he controlled nature's great 
forces, rebuking the winds and waves and converting a 
storm into a calm ; or, as when he asserted his power 
over all diseases and healed them by a word or by a 
touch ; or, as when he demonstrated his authority over 
the invisible world, so that devils cried out in his presence, 
"Art thou come to torment us before our time?" or, when 
he manifested his power in raising the dead from their 
tombs ; and, lastly, by rising himself on the third auspi- 
cious day, and coming forth to give benediction to his 
disciples. But if these things testify to the deity of Christ, 
we have also equal evidence of his humanity in the fact 
that his bodily wants and infirmities were similar to those 
that we possess in the fact that after he had taken a long 
summer journey, he sat wearied at the well as he talked 
with the Samaritan woman ; in the fact that he, too, was 
thirsty and needed food and drink; in the fact, too, that 
he shed tears. If there is anything that indicates the true 
humanity of our Lord it is when we see him lifting up 
his eyes to heaven, and sighing out a petition from the 
sadness of his heart, just as he was about to heal the poor, 
infirm man, not only because of his pity for an individual 
sufferer, but because he looked upon that man as a type 
of thousands and hundreds of thousands of sufferers in 
the world ; or when he said to the sisters of Lazarus, 
"Where have ye laid him?" and sought that natural relief 
that so many have felt in going to the grave to weep 
there ; and when he was so moved with sympathy that 
the Jews who looked upon him said, "Behold, how he 
16 



242 SERMONS. 

loved him ;" and when the Evangelist put on record that 
shortest and tenderest verse in all the Bible, "Jesus wept." 
But, my friends, not only are these the proofs of the 
humanity of our Lord, but we also* have another demon- 
stration in the fact that our Lord himself was dependent 
upon prayer ; that he derived from it strength and conso- 
lation, and was so like us in these respects that he was 
not ashamed to call us "brethren," for though he was a 
Son, he learned obedience by the things that he suffered. 
And what first arrests our attention is the fact that, 
although Jesus was the sinless One, still that did not 
render him independent of prayer. Christ had no con- 
fessions to make, no petitions for pardon to offer; and 
yet who prayed so fervently, and yet who prayed so fre- 
quently, who prayed so earnestly, whose prayers were 
more protracted than the prayers of him who rose on 
one occasion a great while before day to pray? He had 
no occasion to enter into his closet, for the hilltop was 
the closet then, and darkness shut the door that shut him 
in. We are told that all night he continued in prayer. 
This was the history of the devotional life of the abso- 
lutely sinless One. And yet our Lord needed the support 
that prayer gives. In his hours of overwhelming sorrow 
he needed the sympathy that Heaven bestows, and we 
see that true manhood of Christ exhibited in the fact that 
he sought solitude and comfort and encouragement and 
strength in his prayers. The loftiest sainthood does not 
exempt one from sorrow, neither does it exempt one from 
the necessity of that strength which the sorrower only 
finds when he can approach acceptably the throne of the 
heavenly grace. There are some souls that tower above 
others even as mountains tower above the plain, but it 
is around the mountain tops that storms most frequently 
gather, and their lightnings flash and their thunders break. 



"TEACH US TO PRAY." 243 

So it was with Christ ; though he came nearest the throne 
of any one who ever stood upon earth, yet his title was 
"Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief." 

Now, we learn that no life is so holy as to exempt the 
saintly man from the necessity of special times and special 
places for prayer — times and places both. I heard one 
say that he had arrived at such a stage of spiritual devel- 
opment that he did not need to offer special prayers. He 
did not need, he said, to offer vocal prayers ; that his 
whole life was a prayer. He lived in perpetual com- 
munion with God, and he needed not, therefore, to utter 
any verbal petition, and needed not to have any set time 
for prayer. My friends, it was not so with Christ; and 
if you wish to condemn, or correct rather than condemn, 
this sad mistake of one who so little comprehends him- 
self as to think himself advanced beyond and above the 
necessity of prayer, you have only to point him to the 
example of the sinless One, who had his places and his 
times for silent, lonely, earnest prayer. I believe that 
one's piety may be so developed that the Christian life 
flows on like some wide, deep, peaceful river to the sea ; 
but, oh ! my friends, it is from fountains in the hills, the 
unfailing springs, tributaries gather that form the wide 
and placid river ; and if ever a life becomes saintly, it 
was because the beginnings of that growth in all that is 
good began in communion with God, and because of the 
grace which God gave the seeker in answer to his verbal 
prayers. 

In the New Testament there are eighteen references to 
Christ's prayers, eighteen references to or quotations from 
his prayers ; and if we take the eighteen and divide them 
into groups, you will find that each group teaches a dif- 
ferent lesson. For instance, one of the groups instructs 
us as to the length of Christ's prayers; that sometimes 



244 SERMONS. 

they were very protracted. There is another group from 
which we learn that it was his custom to mingle thanks- 
giving with his prayers. Another group teaches us that 
it was his custom, while he prayed for himself, to make 
intercession for others, and so he prayed for his friends, 
and he prayed for his enemies, and he prayed for his 
disciples. He prayed as a man : he prayed as a Mediator. 
He prayed often, he prayed earnestly, and he prayed long. 
And now, for the sake of more distinct impression, I wish 
to refer you, to refresh your recollection, to the special 
occasions that Christ made the times of special prayer. 

First. Christ always began or accompanied and fol- 
lowed his labors with prayers. The toiling Christ ! Oh ! 
how little conception the ordinary reader has of the biog- 
raphies of our Lord as given by the evangelists ; how 
small the conception of the life of labor, of protracted and 
lasting toil of our Lord. I wish I had time this morning 
to take up the history of one single day, recorded by one 
of the evangelists, to give you some conception of how 
our Lord spent his days — his days of toil. Well, we find 
that when such a day was about to approach, he either 
arose early in the morning, and sought the strength which 
he might need for the duties of the day; or, when the 
toils of the day were over, he separated himself from 
his disciples, and oftentimes with great difficulty, in order 
that he might retire to some secret place, and there refresh 
his soul and find his rest through communion with the 
Father. My friends, let us see to it that we never sepa- 
rate work and worship. The reason why so much of 
our Christian work is ineffectual, the reason why it is 
not crowned with happier results, is that we undertake 
it with so much self-confidence, and so much reliance upon 
our ability, without remembering at all that our suffi- 
ciency is of the Lord, and his blessing alone makes our 



"TEACH US TO PRAY." 245 

labor efficient. Oh ! that every pastor could remember 
this ; that every head of every household could remember 
this; that every teacher of a Bible class in a Sunday- 
school could remember this ; that every parent would 
remember this ; that every business man would remember 
this. When consecrated by prayer, business may be made 
an instrument by which the soul shall be trained for a 
higher and nobler sphere. Christ accompanied all the 
work of his life with prayer, and his is the great example 
that we have to follow. 

Second. I remark, again, that when he was about to 
enter upon a new era in his public life, he inaugurated 
it by prayer. We have one illustration of this : at the 
time when he called his disciples, Christ could have car- 
ried on his own work in the world alone had he chosen, 
without the aid or intervention of men; but it pleased 
him to summon to the work of laying the foundation of 
the earthly church and of giving extension to the kingdom 
which he inaugurated — it pleased him to call twelve 
men to that sacred office ; and before he summoned them 
to their work, he preceded that act upon which the whole 
future of the church was so much dependent, and upon 
which the propagation of his gospel throughout the world 
depended — he inaugurated that work first by solemn 
prayer. He prayed, and then he called the men who were 
to be co-workers with him in the establishment of his 
kingdom in the world, (Luke vi. 12, 13.) 

Third. And so we find that when our Lord entered 
upon his own public ministry, before he went into the 
next towns, as he expressed it, to preach the gospel of 
the kingdom, he first offered prayer before he became the 
preacher of his own gospel in the world. (Mark i. 35-39.) 
We are taught, my friends, that when we are about to 
make a change in our own lives, or when any change is 



246 SERMONS. 

about to occur in our own households, that ought to be a 
time of special prayer. When you move into another resi- 
dence, the man who builds a house and furnishes it, and 
takes wife, children and domestics into it, ought to con- 
secrate that house by prayer just as we consecrate our 
churches when they are finished, and when we are ready 
to offer them for the service of the Almighty. It is a 
beautiful custom, when we move to a new residence, or 
when we have a new home, to begin our domestic life 
with a domestic altar, and ask, with united hearts, that 
God will bless those who inhabit that place and dwell 
beneath that roof, and to overrule all the changes, of joy 
and sorrow, and all the vicissitudes of family life to which 
we are subject, by his good Spirit. 

Prayer is the best preparation for impending events, 
and for all the changes that take place among friends, 
and all the separation that take place in families; and so 
Matthew Henry quaintly says, whenever friends are about 
to part they ought to pray that God's blessing may be 
upon them while they are separated, and that it may please 
God to bring them together with hearts grateful for his 
providential and gracious goodness during the separation ; 
or, if they never meet on earth, they ought to pray at 
parting that they may meet in the place where there are 
no separations. 

Fourth. In the next place, we notice that our Lord 
offered special prayer when he was about to enter upon 
great enjoyment, and when the Father was about to 
bestow new privileges and new honors upon him. One 
of these occasions was the time of his baptism. (Luke 
iii. 21, 22.) We read that while Jesus stood praying, 
heaven opened, and the Spirit, in the form of a dove, 
descended upon him. My friends, if you would make the 
ordinances of God's house, the solemn sacraments of his 



"TEACH US TO PRAY." 247 

institution, effectual to your spiritual development, you 
must accompany them by prayer. If the Spirit, like a 
peaceful dove descends and rests upon your heart, that 
Spirit comes only in answer to your prayers. As Jesus 
stood praying, heaven opened, and as the Spirit descended, 
the voice of the Father was heard, saying, "This is my 
beloved Son." And then, again, we read that as Christ 
was praying he was transfigured. (Luke ix. 28, 29.) 
That was the only time when Christ gave the world a 
glimpse of his innate glory. On that occasion, the veil 
for a moment being taken away, his glory flamed out 
upon the eyes of all beholders as he was transfigured 
before them; and as he was praying the fashion of his 
countenance was changed. My friends, it is prayer only 
that can give us that tranquillity, that can give us that 
sweet and heavenly unction by which men shall feel how 
sweet and potent an influence goodness is, and make us 
blessings to those with whom we have daily associations. 
Fifth. I remark, again, that when Christ anticipated 
great sorrows, he made these occasions the times of special 
prayer. When he was approaching the hour for which 
the world had been waiting for thousands of years, the 
hour when all the promises were about to find fulfilment, 
our Lord gathered his disciples about him and delivered 
to them a valedictory discourse, and then he followed that 
discourse with a prayer, teaching us that every sermon 
ought to be followed by a prayer, as well as preceded by 
a prayer, if we would imitate the example of Christ, for 
just as soon as he finished his farewell discourse to his 
disciples, we read that Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven 
and began that wonderful prayer, that intercessory prayer 
recorded in the Gospel of John, the longest prayer of our 
Lord's on record. (John, chap, xvii.) When we glance 
through it, oh! how much that prayer teaches us. It 



248 SERMONS. 

began by saying, "Father, glorify thy son." Oh ! what a 
moment that was. There was a great sorrow impending, 
the greatest sorrow that humanity had ever known, the 
greatest tragedy that earth had witnessed was about to be 
enacted ; but Christ does not speak of that primarily. His 
great desire was that, whatever the sorrow might be, 
it should be overruled for his glory, and therefore he said, 
"Father, glorify thy name !" teaching you, O friends ! 
that when trouble comes upon you, you ought not to be 
so anxious that the trouble should be taken from you as 
that the trouble may be sanctified to you, and be so, in 
some way, the means of bringing greater glory to the 
Father and glorify his name. Then how tenderly he 
prayed for his disciples: "O Father, keep through thine 
own name those whom thou has given unto me." And 
then he prayed for their unity, that they might be one. 
Oh ! the Lord hasten the time when all the different de- 
nominations of Christendom may pay less and less atten- 
tion to the things that divide them, and more and more 
attention to the things in which they all agree, for, after 
all, the common things are the greatest things, the true 
things and the best things. Oh ! that the time may come 
when the Lord's prayer may be fulfilled in the unity which 
is one day to be vouchsafed to the universal church. He 
prayed not only for this, but there is one other petition 
in this prayer which gives it a personal interest to each 
one of us, and that was when our Lord said, "I pray not 
only for my disciples ; but I pray for all those who shall 
believe on me through their word" — that Word which 
the apostles preached; that Word which has been trans- 
mitted through all countries, which has been proclaimed 
in so many thousands of places on this continent and all 
over the earth to-day — "Those who shall believe on me 
through their word." Oh ! it is comforting to think that 



"TEACH US TO PRAY." 249 

we were remembered and included in that all-comprehen- 
sive intercessory prayer of our Lord just before his suf- 
fering. 

And, then, from the supper he went to the garden, 
and said to his disciples, "Watch ye here while I go yonder 
and pray." (Matt. xxvi. 36; Mark xiv. 32.) Oh! what 
a prayer that was in Gethsemane. Oh ! what earnestness, 
what reverence. Christ kneeled upon his knees, and then 
he fell upon his face. What resignation ! "If it be possi- 
ble, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, 
but thine, be done." And although the cup did not pass 
from him, the prayer was answered, for an angel came 
and strengthened him. Then, the prayer completed, he 
was ready to go forth and perform that work for which 
he became incarnate, that work upon which the salvation 
of unnumbered millions of Adam's race depended, the 
great sacrifice which he offered of himself upon Calvary. 
As our Lord lived praying, so he died praying ; for while 
they were making the preparations for the crucifixion, 
just as the cruel work began, our Lord said, "Father, 
forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 
xxiii. 34.) And then, when the tragedy was over, and 
when the Sun of Righteousness was going down with a 
bloody setting behind the lurid clouds, he uttered another 
prayer. He said ! , "Father, into thy hands I commend my 
spirit." (Luke xxiii. 46.) 

My friends, into whose hands do you expect your soul 
to go when you die? That is a searching question. I 
have often thought that there is nothing that can be im- 
agined so lonely and so desolate as the soul that goes out 
of the earthly tenement into awful space, unless there is 
some friendly hand to lead it, unless there are some tender 
arms to embrace it. Oh ! to think of the dread loneliness 
of a soul ejected from the body, going out into the black- 



250 SERMONS. 

ness and darkness without a ray, without a guide, without 
a hope. 

Stephen's prayer was one that he caught from the 
prayer that our Lord had offered on the cross. When they 
were stoning him to death, he looked up through the part- 
ing blue and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of 
God, and he said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; and 
he fell asleep." 

So, dear friends, I close my sermon with the simple 
expression of the wish that all of the events, that all of 
the changes, that all of the duties, that all the privileges 
of your lives may be so consecrated by prayer that when 
you come to the hour when heart and flesh fail, you may 
have the assurance of David when he said, "When 
strength and heart faileth, be thou my strength and my 
portion." 

The life that is to be followed by a peaceful death and 
a safe transmission into the house not made with hand's, 
eternal in the heavens, where Christ will receive the de- 
parting soul in answer to the petition which he offered 
in his own intercessory prayer when he said, "Father, I 
will that those whom thou hast given me be with me 
where I am, that they may behold my glory." Oh ! say 
this, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; 
I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." 



XX. 

g IN THE SWELLING OF JORDAN. 

"If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied 
thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and it in the 
land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then 
how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" — Jeremiah xii. 5. 

I AM going to preach upon a text from which, perhaps, 
you never heard a sermon, and I hope it will not be 
less interesting or instructive on that account. Listen 
again to the strange phraseology of the prophet. 

"The swelling of Jordan." The interest which we 
feel in rivers does not depend upon their beauty, upon 
their length, upon their size, or upon their fitness for 
navigation, but upon the historic events which have made 
them memorable. We have no associations that are 
pleasant — we have no associations of any kind — with 
a river like the Amazon, like the Ganges, though they are 
classed among the great rivers of the world. That makes 
no difference in our estimate of them. And yet when we 
hear the name of the Nile, what a host of memories are 
conjured up by its mention. We recall that upon its 
waters was rocked the cradle of Moses, the great law- 
giver and leader of the people in their magnificent march 
from the land of bondage to the Canaan, where they were 
a free people, and enjoyed the best government the world 
ever knew, the government of the theocracy. So, too, the 
river Rhine is one of those historic rivers with which we 
have numbers of associations. What battles have been 
fought upon its banks! What castles stand upon its 



252 SERMONS. 

crags, with a romance in every stone, from foundation 
up to the battlemented towers on the summit ! But of all 
the rivers of the world there is no river with which we 
have associations so sacred and so tender as the river 
Jordan. From the time that Abraham and Lot held a 
debate upon its banks as to where their possession should 
lie; from the time that Jacob, that old patriarch, exult- 
ingly cried, "With my staff have I passed over this Jor- 
dan; and now I am become two bands"; from the time 
that Joseph went up from Egypt to bury his father, when 
he made that great mourning at the threshing-floor of 
Atad — down to the time when John the Baptist preached 
the doctrine of repentance upon its banks, down to the 
time when Jesus came to be baptized of him, and when 
from the open heavens descended the dove that lighted 
upon him, and the voice that said, "This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased." And so from that time 
to ours, this river has been the scene of some of the most 
important events in the world's annals. The Crusaders 
quenched their thirst in its waters in the pause of battle, 
when they came to recover the Sepulchre from the hands 
of the Saracens. I cannot give in full the history of this 
river. I will only say the greatest exploration of its entire 
course, from the Sea of Tiberias down to its entrance into 
the Salt Sea, was made by an American, an officer in the 
American army. There is no river like it, because of the 
associations connected with it in the mind of the Jew, in 
the mind of the Mohammedan, in the mind of the Chris- 
tian, all over the world, and the Jordan is the only river 
that is looked upon with veneration by these great repre- 
sentatives of the world's nationalities, the Jew, the Mo- 
hammedan, and the Christian. And what a singular 
interest attaches itself to that river, when in all languages 
it has been made the emblem of that separating water that 



IN THE SWELLING OF JORDAN. 253 

divides the heavenly land from ours ; and if I could only 
turn to the passage, I would give you an illustration of it : 

" Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, 
Stand dressed in living green; 
So to the Jews old Canaan stood, 
While Jordan rolled between. 

" Oh ! could we make these doubts remove, 
These gloomy doubts that rise, 
And see the Canaan that we love 
With unbeclouded eyes. 

" Could we but climb where Moses stood, 
And view the landscape o'er, 
Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood 
Could fright us from the shore." 

I am going to give you an analogy which I have 
worked out, and it has been exceedingly interesting to 
me ; it is this, that a river is the most striking emblem of 
which we have any knowledge, the most striking emblem 
of human life. It is like human life because at its begin- 
ning it is small as infancy itself. And then it widens and 
deepens in its onward flow, just as manhood grows richer 
and fuller with experience, and all the treasures of accu- 
mulated knowledge. The spectator, as he stands upon the 
banks, never sees the same water twice ; while he looks 
at the water just beneath him, it is gliding away, and 
passes from his sight. So the generations go. But as 
the spectator stands, the river is still there. And so the 
human race continues ; although the generations vanish, 
the great river of human life still rolls on! And then 
again, what a striking emblem of human life there is in 
the fact that oftentimes the current of the river is exceed- 
ingly swift, and then its motion seems almost to cease ; 
sometimes it is crowded within narrow banks, and then 



254 SERMONS. 

suddenly it widens out like a lake; sometimes it runs 
almost dry, and then again with spring showers it over- 
flows all the plain ! Oh ! what a striking emblem that is 
of the penury, of the poverty that oftentimes makes life 
seem so narrow and so hard ! And what a striking em- 
blem of that sudden expansion of wide and joyous ampli- 
tude when Heaven's bounty flows in and overflows, to 
swell the volume of human opportunity, and human suc- 
cess, and human happiness ! What an emblem the river 
is of the vicissitudes of life; what an emblem of the 
devious ways in which we oftentimes wind our course 
through life! That river, the Jordan, never ran in a 
straight line; sometimes it was very turbid and tawny, 
sometimes bright and clear ; but, like all the human race 
— and, oh ! what an analogy this is — like all the human 
race, emptying at last into the Dead Sea ! 

When Napoleon was about to fight one of his great 
battles in Egypt, he animated his troops by saying, "Forty 
centuries are looking down upon you." He was remind- 
ing them of the pyramids when he said that. So, when I 
look upon the river Jordan, forty centuries chronicle its 
history with the most memorable events in the world's 
annals. 

The prophet Jeremiah, who was the author of this 
most solemn text, was a man whose life was very full of 
strange experiences. He was a man of very gentle and 
tender spirit; he was a man that shrunk from responsi- 
bility, and yet when duty was imposed upon him, there 
never was a man more courageous, more firm, more reso- 
lute, more true to every obligation. The condition of 
the country was one that weighed heavily upon his heart, 
because Jeremiah was not only a prophet, he was a patriot 
as well. The condition of the country made him emphati- 
cally a "man of sorrows." Every time he struck the 



IN THE SWELLING OF JORDAN. 255 

quivering wires of his harp a tear seemed to drop from 
the trembling cords ! He had a happy time during the 
reign of good King Josiah ; but after his worthless son, 
Zedekiah, sat upon the throne, then the woes of Jeremiah 
began afresh. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who 
had reduced the country to subjection, was perfectly 
willing that Zedekiah should have the nominal reign, be- 
cause the great emperor knew that he would be a facile, 
pliable tool in his hands, for Zedekiah was a man without 
resolution, without self-reliance ; he was crafty, cunning 
and treacherous. In the exercise of his prophetic office, 
Jeremiah had felt it his duty to tell King Zedekiah of the 
woes that were coming upon Jerusalem, that it should be 
captured by the Chaldeans. Zedekiah had already made 
a treaty with Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon ; but 
now, when he found the city was to be captured and 
pillaged afresh, he determined to make an alliance with 
Pharaoh-Hophra, the king of Egypt, and he acted a 
treacherous part towards the government of which he was 
a vassal. The prophet came and assured him that that 
expedient would be a terrible failure, that the king of 
Egypt would never prevent the capture and pillage of the 
city by the Chaldeans. Still Zedekiah refused to believe 
the words of the prophet. At last they found a strange 
fulfilment: the king of Egypt did indeed march to the 
rescue of Zedekiah, but the Chaldean army intercepted 
him, and defeated him, and obtained such a victory that 
the Egyptian troops went back to Egypt ; and then the 
Chaldean troops had nothing to do but complete the cap- 
ture of the city. There was still one possible refuge for 
King Zedekiah, and that was to do what the prophet told 
him to do, to go and humble himself before the king of 
Babylon, and allow the yoke to be put afresh upon his 
neck. It was a very humiliating condition, to be sure; 



256 SERMONS. 

but it was that or utter ruin. He was unwilling to make 
that sacrifice — he saw his country ruined ! 

Now you comprehend the significance of the wonder- 
ful words of this text. "If thou hast run with the foot- 
men, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou 
contend with horses ? and if in the land of peace, wherein 
thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do 
in the swelling of Jordan?" The meaning of that is 
simply this, "If you are not willing to humble yourself 
and take the yoke of the king, who will save the city from 
pillage, and still allow you to be his viceroy — if you will 
not consent to that condition, then you must make up 
your mind to the hard result, to the terrible tragedy that 
will end this scene ; the demand that the king of Babylon 
makes, that you should humble yourself, is but a contest 
with the footmen ; but when he comes to> sack the city, 
that will be the inroad of the horsemen; and if you are 
afraid of the little stream that you dare not cross, what 
will you do in the swelling of Jordan?" This is a great 
parable. The result of the history I will briefly tell you. 
The Chaldeans came, the city was invested, Zedekiah 
attempted to escape, he got out upon the plain, he was 
arrested while he was a fugitive by the Chaldeans, he 
was taken captive to Babylon with his sons; his sons 
were slain before his eyes, and his own eyes were put 
out, and he was for the rest of his life a captive ! 

This text stands at the head of a number of passages 
of similar import that we find scattered through the Bible, 
to only two or three of which I shall have opportunity to 
refer. Here is one of them : When our Lord was on his 
way to the crucifixion, as he passed along 'the Dolorous 
Way, he was followed by the women, beating upon their 
breasts and wailing as they went, and he turned and said, 
"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for 



IN THE SWELLING OF JORDAN. 25? 

yourselves" ; and then he added, "If these things be done 
in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry ?" — by 
which he meant, "If I, an innocent sufferer, must suffer 
death because I bear the sins of others, what will be the 
sufferings of others who meet divine retribution because 
they bear their own sins unforgiven?" "If these things 
be done in the green tree" — Christ compares himself to 
a tree whose leaves are for the healing and not for the 
hurt; "if a being so innocent and pure as I am must 
suffer death, what shall be the doom of those who have 
the promise and the possibilities of the rescue, of the 
Rock of Ages — of the ark of safety — and refuse to 
enter it, 'what shall they do in the swelling of the Jor- 
dan ?' " Our Lord wept when he thought of the desola- 
tion that was to come upon the city. All the calamities 
that had hitherto befallen the city were not to be com- 
pared with the ruin and desolation brought upon it by 
Titus — that is the bloodiest picture in the book of time ! 
They had passed through trials, but the trials had not 
been sanctified; they had had many calls to repentance, 
many opportunities of making peace with God. They 
put these opportunities aside, and slighted them, one by 
one. In the land of peace they had not sought the friend- 
ship and favor of the Prince of Peace, and what were they 
to do in the swellings of Jordan? 

This is an ancient parable ; and it finds another illus- 
tration in the discontent which we often find in the minds 
of people that live in the midst of peace, and in the land 
of plenty. Possibly no people complain more of life's 
worries than those that have been dandled in the lap of 
luxury — it is the people of overflowing wealth, that have 
tried all of life's pleasures, and found them devoid of 
satisfaction. There is more murmuring oftentimes in 
the heart that is covered with lace, with glittering dia- 
17 



258 SERMONS. 

monds above it, than in the poor woman that stitch by 
stitch makes her hard living in the garret. If people con- 
not bear the little trials that come upon them for their 
discipline, what will they do when the great trials come? 
"If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied 
thee, then how canst thou contend with horses ?" And if 
men do not learn patience and resolution under the minor 
trials and toils of life, what are they going to do when the 
great trials of life come — that take the fragrance and the 
brightness and the music out of life, and leave men deso- 
late? "And if in the land of peace thou art full of mur- 
muring and rebellion against God's providence, what are 
you going to do when great troubles come like the swell- 
ing of Jordan?" 

We have another illustration in those solemn words 
of the Apostle, when he said, "If the violator of Moses* 
law died without mercy, when there were only two or 
three witnesses against him, of how much sorer punish- 
ment shall he be counted worthy who rejects the Son of 
God, and slights the blood of the covenant, and does de- 
spite to the Spirit of grace?" There is an argument from 
the less to the greater. The man that broke the old law 
died without mercy, when accused by two or three wit- 
nesses. The Apostle says, if that be so, then how much 
greater will be the punishment of the man that tramples, 
not only upon the law, but upon the love of Jesus, and the 
man that dishonors the Son by refusing to take advantage 
of his offers of mercy. Two or three witnesses were 
required of old ; there are three witnesses now, the wit- 
ness of the insulted Father, the witness of the injured 
Son, the witness of the grieved Spirit! Ah! if the men 
that lived under the old law could not contend with the 
footmen, what is to become of the men under the law of 
grace, under the economy of love, what is to become of 



IN THE SWELLING OF JORDAN. 259 

them when they trample under foot the atoning Saviour, 
and do despite to the Spirit of grace — what are they 
going to do in the swelling of Jordan ? 

And still again, the Apostle cries out, "If the righteous 
scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner 
appear?" Not that there is anything defective in the 
atonement of Christ ; not that there is anything uncertain 
in the promises of God, but this is what the Apostle 
means : in order to be assured that we are Christians, 
what purifying of our lives and hearts, what resistance 
of temptation, what striving against sin, what earnestness 
in running the Christian race, what self-denial, what self- 
crucifixion is necessary to obtain the assurance that we 
are on the way to heaven ; and if those who profess to be 
on the way are intimidated by the difficulty of preparation, 
what shall they do in the swelling of Jordan? 

And so I close my sermon by asking one more ques- 
tion : What are they going to do who do not seek an 
interest in the Saviour, who do not make their peace with 
God because they are hindered by the little, trifling ob- 
stacles that lie in their way ; because they feel the pres- 
sure of business, because they do not find time to do that 
for which all time was given — because they are intimi- 
dated by the fear of ridicule, are reluctant to break old 
sinful associations, to part with sinful companionship? 
W r hat are we to say of those who allow these little diffi- 
culties to keep them out of the kingdom of heaven — keep 
them from attending to the things that belong to their 
eternal peace? And if they reject the overtures of grace, 
when all the conditions for obtaining peace are favorable ; 
if they are unwilling to submit to any sacrifices or self- 
denial while seeking reconciliation with God, what are 
they going to do when they are on their deathbed, and are 
buffeted by the swelling of Jordan? You say, "Now I 



2 6o SERMONS. 

have not a suitable time to prepare for the eternity that 
lies before men, and is so near." If you cannot make 
opportunity now, do you think you will when you come 
to contend with the cold billows that beat upon you when 
you get in the swelling of Jordan? I do not know of 
anything more terrible than the anguish of the despairing 
soul, trying under the most distressing, most helpless 
circumstances of life, to make his peace with God — the 
man that allowed the other trifles to prevent him from 
getting safely into the city of refuge — the man who 
struggles when it is too late, and among the buffeting of 
those billows tries to secure something that requires the 
best exercise of the mind and heart and the calmest and 
most rational moments of life ! — in the midst of fever, 
in the midst of the paralysis that often comes upon the 
brain at that moment! If he does not contend with the 
footmen, what will he do with the horsemen; if he does 
not brave the little stream, what is he going to do when 
he comes to the swelling of Jordan? That is the awful 
inquiry that the prophet makes. 

I commend you to the last pages of the Pilgrim's 
Progress, when Christian and Faithful and Hopeful came 
to the brink of the Jordan, the separating river, they were 
delighted to find that when they walked down into it 
they found themselves walking upon a firm bottom, and 
they found the river very shallow. There was no swelling 
then, no desolating flood to oppose their progress. They 
passed over safely. Payson, when he came to that river, 
said he found it had dwindled to a rill, so narrow he 
could step across it. Oh ! happy are those that have im- 
proved all their opportunities so that when they come to 
the last critical moments of life they may have nofhing 
to do but to cross over, and rest under the shade of the 
trees that fringe the banks of the river of life immortal ! 



XXI. 
A COFFIN IN EGYPT. 

''So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old: and they 
embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." — Gen. 1. 26. 

THE East is the land of wonder, mystery, romance 
and song. It was in the East that the Garden of 
Eden was planted before thorns and thistles infested the 
ground, or sin and sorrow came into the world. It was 
in the East that the old world empires flourished and fell. 
It was in the East that the patriarchs and prophets of 
Old Testament history uttered the words and performed 
the acts by which, being dead, they yet speak to us. It 
was in the East that the light arose, which, travelling 
westward, illumined Europe, and then crossing the ocean 
irradiated these American shores. It was in the East 
that Christianity commenced its magnificent march on its 
ever-brightening way to universal conquest. 

Of these ancient empires some have not left a trace on 
the map of the world. They are gone like the dreams of 
things that were — 

"Wondrous and awful are thy silent halls, 

O kingdoms of the past ! 
There lie the byegone ages in their palls, 

Guarded by shadows vast; 
There all is hushed and breathless, 

Save where some image of old error falls 
Earth worshipped once as deathless." — Lowell. 

To this there is one memorable exception. Egypt still 
survives, though it stands only as the echo of a great 



262 SERMONS. 

name. But there it is, unchanged — at least, in its strange 
physical characteristics. Its clear skies are not veiled by 
clouds, casting grateful shadows on the parched plains. 
Its long drouths are not relieved by the showers which 
make the furrowed fields soft and green. No rain drops 
on the pastures of its wilderness. But the time at last 
comes when the inundation of its mighty river gives 
opportunity for literally casting seed upon the waters. 
Then comes the flash of verdure, and then the richer 
hues of harvest. So that the Egyptian people say their 
land for three months is white like pearl, for three months 
black like mask, for three green like emerald, for three 
yellow like gold. Yes, Egypt is the wonderful land on 
the banks of whose solitary river stands the long line of 
pyramids — the mausoleums where kings lie in their 
glory, on whose sands crouches the sphynx, with expres- 
sive face of imperturbable calm, gazing out on infinity. 
There, too, moulder mighty cities, whose foundings ante- 
date history, the land whose present degradation verifies 
the truth of prophecy, that it should be the basest of king- 
doms, blighted by the leprous hand of the Turk, which 
taints all that it touches, while adjacent Palestine cowers 
under 'his brutal heel. It was characteristic of these old 
world nations that their golden age was in the past. They 
fondly looked back to a time when 'the skies were bright 
and the fields were fertile, when laws were just and 
morals pure, and when prosperity filled the cup of a vir- 
tuous people. But as time wore on, signs of disintegra- 
tion and decay filled the minds of the wisest and most 
thoughtful with forebodings of final disaster and extinc- 
tion. Seers, poets, historians, decline and fall in melan- 
choly and hopeless strains. To this general foreboding 
there was one memorable exception. The bards and 
prophets of ancient Israel turned their faces towards the 



A COFFIN IN EGYPT. 263 

future, and in that future saw their brightest era. There 
was much in their history to depress and even to extin- 
guish this hope, but it survived amidst all apostasies, all 
captivities, all desolations of foreign conquests. With the 
light of morning in their eyes, and the glories of Messiah 
thrilling their hearts, they hailed the day when his way 
should be known on earth, and his saving health among 
the nations ; when Gentiles should come to his light, and 
kings to the brightness of his rising, and when all the 
nations should rejoice on the blessings of his universal 
reign. Thus, while the poets and sages and the oracles 
of the old pagan world predicted ultimate disaster and 
overthrow, and while one by one their hopes of a happy 
future went down into the sad sea that never gives up its 
dead, Palestine, the most isolated and territorially insig- 
nificant of the old nations, lying directly in the pathway 
of rival kingdoms — its ground trembling under the tread 
of great armies, often provoking the wrath of powerful 
neighbors, often pillaged and conquered by them; yet 
there, in the Hebrew heart, the hope of a radiant future 
glowed like a perpetual altar fire, and found expression 
in those triumphant Psalms, which, beating time to trum- 
pet and timbal, have the ring of conquest in their melo- 
dious march ! 

The whole Book of Genesis glows with these predic- 
tions of coming prosperity and power to Israel, till we 
come to the last chapter, when all these glowing prospects 
suddenly disappear — suddenly shrouded as with a pall ; 
so that all that seems to remain is what is hid under the 
lid of "a cofiin in Egypt." Thus the closing chapter of 
Genesis ends with the death of the last man who had the 
influence or the power to help his Hebrew brethren, and 
we read, "So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years 
old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a cofiin 



264 SERMONS. 

in Egypt." Was there ever such a lame and impotent 
conclusion to a splendid history ? — ever a hope succeeded 
by such despair, ever a story so full of joyful anticipation, 
ending in a tragedy so dismal ? To comprehend the whole 
depth of the disappointment we must go back to the Old 
Testament history, and ascertain what were the expecta- 
tions awakened by the divine promises with regard to the 
deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, their march to 
Canaan, and their ultimate prosperity and glory in their 
own land. A new era began in the history of the world 
at the call of Abraham; it was the commencement of a 
new chapter in the great book of Providence. It was the 
lifting of the curtain which revealed new scenes and 
actors in the drama of human affairs. The call of Abra- 
ham was the initial act on the establishment of the visible 
kingdom of God in the world. It was an event whose 
influence and results are felt to this day. To-morrow 
were you to meet a man on the street who had never 
given a thought to such a subject, were you to tell him 
that he had a personal interest in the call of Abraham, 
that his own life and all the influences which had moulded 
that life were different from what they would have been 
if no such man as Abraham had never existed, what 
would he say ? He might say nothing, but he would think 
that you were smitten with some mild form of lunacy. 
And yet, were he a man of ordinary intelligence, you 
could so demonstrate the truth of your statement as to 
make him admit it. You could tell him that it was not a 
theologian, but a thinker like Thomas Carlyle, who said 
that a man's religion was the chief thing about him, and 
determined all the rest. You could show him that with 
Abraham began the nation that has shaped the religious 
history of the world, and whatever shapes that determines 
the character of domestic, social and political life. You 



A COFFIN IN EGYPT. 265 

could tell him the institutions under which we live were 
not only moulded by the old theocracy and by the Chris- 
tianity, which was the development of that theocracy, but 
owe their existence to it. So that the man who thought 
you a lunatic or fanatic for making such an assertion 
would himself admit that he was a different man for 
having been born of Christian instead of pagan parents. 
Abraham was the central figure in the old world history, 
and the promises God made to him are yet in process of 
fulfilment. What were these promises? That Canaan 
was 'to be inhabited by his posterity, that in his seed all 
the nations of the earth were to be blessed. Never was 
their faith more triumphant than his. "He believed God, 
and it was counted to him for righteousness. " His was a 
faith that did not stagger at improbabilities, nor at seem- 
ing impossibilities. 

Though Canaan was then held by a warlike race, 
though he had no army at his command, no means of con- 
quest, he knew that the promise was sure ; though he was 
an old man and childless, yet he never doubted his pos- 
terity would be as the stars for multitude; though the 
time of fulfilment of the promise lay in far distant cen- 
turies, though he was told that his descendants should be 
strangers in a land not theirs four hundred years, yet he 
was assured they should come out with great substance, 
and become a great nation. 

These promises were renewed to Jacob, and though 
his faith, too, was sorely tried, it did not fail under the 
sltrain. When famine drove him down to Egypt, he was 
told not to fear — the way had already been prepared — 
for a strange providence had sent Joseph there before him 
and exalted him to the very summit of human power and 
honor. God said to him I am the God of thy fathers, fear 
not to go down into Egypt, for I will go with thee and I 



266 SERMONS. 

will make of thee a great nation, and I will surely bring 
thee up again ! Few incidents are more dramatic than the 
meeting between Joseph and his father, or the interview 
between Jacob and Pharaoh, and how much nobler was 
the bearing of the patriarch than that of the king! 
Pharaoh could not think of anything more graceful in 
opening the conversation than to ask Jacob how old he 
was. What surpassing dignity there was in the reply, 
and when the interview was ended, we read that Jacob 
blessed Pharaoh and went out. "Without contradiction, 
says the Apostle, the less was blessed by the greater" 
(better). And when he went out, it was the kingly man 
who departed, only a doomed Egyptian mummy was left 
behind, and the glory of the scene vanished with Jacob's 
departure. But the largest, most illustrious life has its 
end. The time came when Jacob said to Joseph, "Behold, 
I die, but God shall be with you, and bring you again to 
the land of your fathers. And he said to his sons, bury 
me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of 
Ephron, in the land of Canaan. There they buried Abra- 
ham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Re- 
becca his wife, and there I buried Leah." Canaan was 
dear chiefly as a memory to Jacob, but to Joseph it was 
dear as a hope, for when his time came, he said, "I die, 
but God will surely visit you, and will bring you out of 
this land, into the land which he sware unto Abraham, to 
Isaac, to Jacob. So Joseph died, and they embalmed him, 
and put him in a coffin in Egypt." 

With the death of Joseph, the last ray of hope of de- 
liverance from Egyptian bondage went out in the black- 
ness of darkness ; the last link was broken which bound 
his people to a happy future. So Joseph dies, and they 
embalmed his body and put him in a coffin in Egypt. 
What now is left ? Only a few bones and a few promises, 



A COFFIN IN EGYPT. 267 

but they were the promises of God. The patriarchs are 
indeed all dead, but God lives — lives in the immuta- 
bility of his truth, in the omnipotence of his power. Note, 
my hearers, after Genesis comes Exodus. Genesis is the 
beginning of things, Exodus is the continuance, the de- 
velopment, the consummation of things. Genesis ends 
with a narrow coffin in Egypt ; Exodus opens with a wide 
deliverance ; a new and splendid history unfolds itself. 
Exodus means departure, it means crossing the Red Sea, 
the destruction of Pharaoh's host, the march to the land 
of promise, the conquest of Canaan. So, after all, the 
faith of Joseph was not in vain, the legacy of the em- 
balmed body was not in vain. The appeal is made to his 
brethren to remember that God would surely visit them, 
and bring 'them to the land of their fathers. The expecta- 
tion that Joseph cherished of being buried in Canaan was 
not in vain. How sublime was the faith that triumphed, 
and all that could daunt and quench it ! Munroe Gibson, 
in his work entitled The Ages Before Moses compares 
Joseph, the apparent end of his race — so far as power to 
help them went — to Campbell's "Last Man," making his 
address to the sun about to go out in eternal niglit — 

"The skeletons of nations were around that lonely man, 
Yet prophet-like that lone one stood, 
With dauntless words and high." 

And what did the lone man say ? He said this : 

" Go tell the night that hides thy face, 
Thou sawest the last of Adam's race 

On earth's sepulchral sod 
The darkened universe defy 
To quench his immortality, 

Or shake his trust in God," 



268 SERMONS. 

So it was with Joseph's high and dauntless words, 
"God will surely visit you and bring you to the land of 
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob." 

Nothing quenched that hope or shook that trust. That 
trust was the trust of triumphant faith — that hope be- 
came a history. The promises were all fulfilled : Canaan 
conquered and possessed, Jerusalem builded, David 
crowned, Solomon's peaceful sway recognized from the 
Nile to the Euphrates. The temple was built upon the 
imperial mount which it graced and glorified, a mountain 
of alabaster, with golden pinnacles flaming at the tops. 
The messenger of the covenant came suddenly into that 
temple. The Desire of all nations was announced, and 
from the seed of Abraham sprang the world's Redeemer ! 
So the promises which seemed to be buried in a coffin in 
Egypt had an Exodus in the birth of One whose coming 
meant peace on earth, and glory to God in the highest. 

This leads naturally and inevitably to the greatest 
illustration of the text. When the enemies of Christ con- 
signed him to the death of the cross, they believed that 
Christianity itself was consigned, not to a coffin in Egypt, 
but a sepulchre in Palestine. But the death of Christ was 
only the Genesis of the gospel of which his resurrection 
was the Exodus. It was the foundation of his media- 
torial reign, for — 

"The Cross a sure foundation laid 

For glory and renown; 
When through the regions of the dead 
He passed to reach his crown." 

He himself spoke of his death, not as the end, but the 
instrument of his perpetuated influence and power. 

Christ's followers always speak of him as alive. This 
is not true of the founders of any other religion. The 



A COFFIN IN EGYPT. 269 

followers of Zoroaster, of Confucius, of Mahomet never 
speak of their master as alive. The Evangelists, indeed, 
record the death of Christ, but in the next breath an- 
nounce his resurrection. St. Luke narrates in his gospel 
what Jesus began to do and to teach, and goes on to tell 
of his continued activity. The Book of Acts might be 
called the Acts of Christ, since it is really a review of 
what the risen, reigning Christ was doing for the ad- 
vancement of his church on earth, for the heralds of 
Christianity went forth, not alone and unsustained, but 
the hand of the Lord was with them, working with them. 
When Stephen was stoned, as he looked through the part- 
ing blue, he saw Jesus standing, for would he sit while 
his holy martyr was dying for him? He saw Jesus, and 
his own face reflected something of the beauty of the 
glorified Saviour. 

" He prayed, and from the happy place 
God's glory smote him on the face." 

Stephen's life was short, if we measure it by years 
only ; it was long if we measure it by the immortality of 
influence. Stephen's life was taken up by the young man, 
at whose feet his clothes were laid ; it had a resumption in 
Paul, who never lost the impression of that martyrdom; 
it was an inspiration to him during the years of his trans- 
cendent course of ceaseless service. If the cross was a 
tragedy, it was also a triumph. Once, indeed, it was the 
symbol only of an ignominious death, but now the asso- 
ciations of men with regard to the cross are not only 
changed, but are actually reversed. The cross is now 
traced in starry constellations, it is emblazoned on the 
banners of conquerors, it is carried on the shields of the 
mighty, it glitters above the domes of great cathedrals. 



276 SERMONS. 

" In the cross of Christ we glory, 

Towering o'er the wrecks of time; 
All the light of sacred story 

Gathers round its head sublime." 

The very tomb of the risen Jesus is the birthplace of 
immortality. Men put him to death, and placed him in a 
sepulchre, that he might restore them to life, and place 
them in a mansion in heaven. The end of every man's 
earthly life is a coffin, but no soul was ever shrouded or 
put in a coffin followed to the grave by weeping kindred. 
What we call death does not destroy the continuity of 
the soul's life. Earthly life is the Genesis, death is the 
Exodus. The time of my departure is at hand, it is bet- 
ter to depart and be with Christ. When the Duke of 
Marlboro was in his last illness he was carried before a 
picture of one of his great battles, and exclaimed, "The 
Duke was something then, but now he is dying!" The 
Christian is something when he is dying, for 'his "life is 
hid with Christ." When Hobbes, the notorious skeptic, 
came to his last moments, he said, "I give my body to the 
dust; my soul to the great Perhaps." The great Per- 
haps ! Paul said, "I know whom I have believed, and he 
will keep that which I have committed to him against that 
day." Victor Hugo said, "I feel within myself the pulsa- 
tion of a future life. You say the soul is nothing but the 
resultant of bodily powers. Why, then, is my soul more 
luminous when bodily powers begin to fail? Winter is 
on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. The tomb 
closes with the twilight, to open with the dawn." A 
greater than Hugo has said, "Precious in the sight of the 
Lord is the death of his saints. The greatest triumphs 
of faith are often witnessed in the final hour — all that has 
appalled vanished from the valley and shadow. Oh! to 
see one leaving this world calmly, saying, "I fear no evil 



A COFFIN IN EGYPT. 271 

for thou art with me." "My heart and my flesh faileth, but 
God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." 
When in such a confidence the spirit prepares its flight, 
in full view of the open gates of the city of God, with 
mortal paleness on the cheek, but glory in the soul, and 
then wings its way to the heavenly home, leaving a smile 
of holy peace imprinted on the clear cold face, and the 
life forever still — then death is indeed translation ; it is 
the boundary line, where earth and heaven meet and 
mingle ; the dark lattice admits the light of eternal day — 
no gloomy vault, but a glory gleaming portal, beyond 
which is eternal bliss. It is no coffin in Egypt, but the 
entrance to a mansion in the Paradise of God. All 
generations shall give praise and honor and glory to the 
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 



XXII. 

UNFULFILLED OBLIGATIONS AT 
LAST FULFILLED. 

"I pray thee, let me go over and see the good land that is be- 
yond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the Lord 
said, Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and behold the land with 
thine eyes, for thou shalt not go over this Jordan." — Deut. iii. 
25-27. 

WHEN one visiting the land of Palestine stands on 
the top of the Mount of Olives, and looks towards 
the south, he beholds the vast range of the Mountains 
of Moab. They stand there on the southern border like 
a great wall, and in general appearance resemble the 
Palisades of the Hudson in the distance, though, unlike 
the Palisades, they are thousands of feet in height. 
Viewed from that standpoint, on Olivet, the top seems 
a horizontal line, and instead of the serrated form that 
mountains assume, it is almost like a sea line in the 
distance ; but as the mountains are approached, and when 
they are reached, it is found that the summits are waving ; 
that there are depressions between them, without much 
depth, and slight eminences, not precipitous, but sloping, 
two of which are Pisgah and Nebo. 

For a long time it was impossible to identify the locali- 
ties of Nebo and Pisgah; it was reserved for a canon 
of the Church of England, for an explorer from the 
United States, and for a medical missionary of the city of 
Beirut, to come nearer to the identification of these sacred 
spots than had hitherto been done, if, indeed, they did 
not actually identify them. In connection with these two 



OBLIGATIONS AT LAST FULFILLED. 273 

named mountains, if we may call them such — mere emi- 
nences in the great range — with these two names at 
least, Pisgah and Nebo, we have associated the most 
pathetic incident in the life of Moses — I might say, the 
most pathetic incident in the life of almost every one that 
ever lived. After forty years of wandering through the 
desert, now that he had come to the borders of Canaan, 
he received a startling message to go up into the top of 
Pisgah, and die there. The text contains the tender 
appeal that Moses made to the Lord to reverse his de- 
cision, "Oh ! let me see the good land, the goodly moun- 
tain, and Lebanon ; let me pass over this Jordan." But 
so peremptory was the refusal, that the Lord told him not 
to speak to him any more upon that matter. 

Oh ! my friends, this decision seems hard, at a time 
when Moses was so near the fruition of his very fondest 
hopes ; hopes that had been so long cherished, so long 
indulged. It always aggravates the disappointment when 
we are just about to reach the thrill of possession, that 
suddenly the hand is arrested, and the veto finally put 
upon the hope that dies in a moment. So it was with 
Moses. I do not know when he began to indulge this 
hope of entering the Land of Promise ; but I take it for 
granted that it often occurred to him during his residence 
in Egypt; often occurred to him during those solitary 
years, amounting almost to half a century, which he spent 
in the solitude of the great desert; and, then, from the 
very time that the magnificent march commenced from 
the borders of Egypt to the borders of Palestine, one 
hope must have thrilled his heart, and that was of enter- 
ing the land for which he had toiled, and for which he 
had trained the people of Israel. 

What ! — could it be true that the meanest member 
of that great host could cross the river and enter the 
18 



2;4 SERMONS. 

Promised Land, while Moses, the mighty leader of that 
host, was left upon the opposite shore, and prohibited 
from putting his foot upon the coveted ground? It was 
quite natural that Moses should have longed to get there. 
It is always natural for us to try, and expect, to reach 
the fruit of our sacrifices and of our toils. It was ex- 
tremely natural for Moses to wish to see the land that was 
endeared to him by so many associations ; the land in 
which the world's gray fathers had pitched their tents; 
the land which God had pledged to their posterity; the 
land where the patriarchs had found their last repose; 
the land that was allied with everything that was most 
inspiring in the history of Israel ; the land where the 
temple was finally to be built ; the land which was to be 
trodden by the feet of him who, for our salvation, was 
nailed to the bitter cross. 

How natural, I say, it was that Moses should wish 
to enter that land, and, after seeing the tribes settled, 
enjoy their prosperity, their progress, their power, their 
happiness ! But all this was denied him. And yet, in 
order to gain such a prize as this, Moses had mad ! e great 
sacrifices ; he had renounced a throne ; he had refused to 
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and when the 
cup, filled with all that could satisfy the loftiest ambition, 
was passed to his lips, he put it aside, and chose rather 
to suffer affliction with the people of God; chose rather 
to endure the reproach of Christ than to possess the riches 
and glories of Egypt. 

If I were to speak of the services that seemed to 
entitle him to such recompense as this, what could I say ? 
I could say little now, because the subject is too great 
for discussion here. I can only say this: that among 
those services was that of being the founder of the most 
wonderful nation that this world ever saw. History does 



OBLIGATIONS AT LAST FULFILLED. 275 

not celebrate the rise and perpetuation of a people whose 
career has been so wonderful as that of the Jewish people. 
Brought out from bondage; drilled to become a nation 
by the discipline of the wilderness ; permitted to take 
possession of the inheritance that God had provided for 
them; then subjected to strange captivities; their city 
pillaged ; their temple burned ; their land often trembling 
under the tread of the armies of the successive conquerors 
who swept over it ; their capital destroyed — and yet, 
for eighteen hundred years, as distinct a people as any 
people that now have their own nationality and autonomy ; 
a separate people, clinging to their ancient institutions 
and traditions, anticipating the advent of' their Messiah; 
everywhere scorned, everywhere surviving; impoverished 
by exaction, yet holding in their hands the wealth of the 
world ; never losing their identity by assimilation or ab- 
sorption by other races ; preserving not only their mental 
characteristics, but their distinctive physical features, so 
that to this day they are everywhere recognizable at a 
glance. All this because of the great things in store for 
them, and through them, in store for the world. When 
the predicted time arrives when Jew and Gentile shall con- 
stitute one family, with one Lord and one faith, then, as 
inspiration teaches us, there will be a new dispensation 
of mercy to mankind, to be followed by the universal 
establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth, giving 
men a new and nobler conception of Providence and 
grace in the unfolding of the divine purpose as to what 
redeemed humanity shall become in time and in the eter- 
nal future. 

The founding of such a nation, designed to exert such 
an influence, was but a part of the work which Moses 
accomplished. And it was at such a time, with a past 
history of personal services so illustrious, and with the 



276 SERMONS. 

immediate prospect of Canaan before him, that the 
startling summons came to him to go up into the moun- 
tain and die there, without leaving so much as a footprint 
on the soil of the land he so loved and longed for. Thus, 
that aspiration expired and went down into the depths 
of the sea that never gives up its dead. 

This is, indeed, one of the most wonderful of all dis- 
pensations. I marvel greatly that God should have 
allowed Moses to cross the Red Sea, and yet not cross 
the narrow Jordan; that God should have spared him 
to live one hundred and twenty years, and then, at the 
time when we are told his eye was not dim, nor his natural 
force abated, when, enriched by the experience of more 
than a century, he was better fitted 1 than ever for service, 
that his career should be abruptly terminated. 

What an ancient parable that is ! What a type it 
was and is, of what has been happening ever since ! What 
chapter in the world's history is more sad than that of 
unfulfilled aspirations ? How many thousand's of men have 
lived that have had one supreme wish in their lives, one 
passion, one aspiration, that swallowed up everything else 
just as a mighty river swallows up all the tributaries 
that run into it. It may be ambition; it may be love; 
it may be the desire for usefulness. Still, it has been the 
master-passion; and when one has staked everything 
upon the attainment of one expectation, and that expecta- 
tion is suddenly blasted, then who can describe the 

tragedy? 

"The night has a thousand eyes, 

The day has one, 
But the light of the whole world dies 

With the setting sun. 
The mind has a thousand eyes, 

The heart has one, 
But the light of the whole life dies 
When love is done." 



OBLIGATIONS AT LAST FULFILLED. 277 

So it has been with thousands since the day of Moses ; to 
thousands has the order come, "Thou shalt not cross this 
river, though it be but a rill, and though you have before 
you your goodly Lebanon, the object of your ambition 
and aspiration, just within reach, you shall not cross the 
river, and you shall not possess the mountain." 

How fragmentary are man's works ! What incom- 
pleteness attaches to man's enterprises of every character ! 
We see hundreds of illustrations of it. It is not every 
historian who has the good fortune that Gibbon recorded 
when he penned the last sentence of his great history of 
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and who, 
as he walked up and down in the little arbor, remembered 
now that he had terminated the work which linked his 
name to immortality. It often happens that the historian 
dies before he has completed his final volume, and he 
leaves his work, perhaps a splendid fragment, his own 
history abruptly terminated. The eye of the great painter 
is closed before he has given the crowning touch to the 
coloring of the picture which he hoped would make him 
famous. The hand of the sculptor is paralyzed while 
yet the statue stands in prophetic, yet unfulfilled, propor- 
tions, to sadden the lover of art with the spectacle of 
symmetry and beauty almost, yet not quite perfected. 
The patriot-soldier, toward whom a nation turns its trust- 
ful and loving gaze, as the instrument, under God, for 
the achievement of its independence, is cut down, with 
a mysterious unexpectedness, leaving a nation to mourn 
its bereavement, its liberties yet unattained. 

Ah ! yes, the lives of men are so incomplete, and so 
full of disappointed aspirations, that this old Nebo parable 
has had its illustrations in all the ages that have succeeded 
Moses. We are reminded of the fact that after Isaac 
Newton — the man of whom it was said that "his was 



278 SERMONS. 

the whitest soul of human kind" — made his splendid dis- 
covery, his theory of astronomy was not, at the time of 
his death, credited by fifty men on the whole continent of 
Europe, and by some he was charged with having made 
an assault upon Revelation by the alleged discoveries 
which he had published. There, too, was Beethoven, just 
as he was about to go to the place where no earthly melody 
penetrates the dull and cold earth of death, who said, 
"If I could live a little longer I could be a musician." In 
this sad procession comes Thorwaldsen, who, on the day 
after he had sketched in chalk the outline of a statue 
that was to be the masterpiece of his life, was smitten 
down in a single moment. You see, also, one of the great- 
est of English discoverers and voyagers, who, after sail- 
ing around the world, and making rare and rich discov- 
eries; after having been shipwrecked again and again, 
and arrested as a prisoner of war ; after six years pining 
in captivity, comes out at last to find that another had 
surreptiously availed himself of the discoveries he had 
made, and claimed the credit of them ; and then, still ani- 
mated by the hope of vindicating himself and of reaping 
the benefit of the researches to which he had given the 
best years of his life, he set to work to prepare new 
maps and a faithful history of his labors, but died on the 
day the proof-sheet was put in his hand. 

This is an old parable that is always finding new illus- 
tration. What shall we say of David Brainard, of Har- 
riet Newell, of Henry Martyn, of the great reformers 
who were snatched away before their tasks were com- 
pleted, and of the missionaries who sailed to pagan lands, 
only to die almost as soon as they touched the far-off 
shore. What shall we say to these things? Let us be 
silent and adore, while we hear the divine answer, "What 
I do, thou knowest not now ; thou shalt know hereafter." 



OBLIGATIONS AT LAST FULFILLED. 279 

And so, when we ask the question, What is the mean- 
ing of all these strange dealings with the children of men ? 
we are taught that the providences of God are like the 
four half lines written on the palace of one of the Caesars 
— four half lines ; we must wait for time to complete the 
rest of the sentence. 

" The great design unnnijhed lies, 
Our lives are incomplete; 

But in the dark unknown, 
Perfect their circles seem, 

Even as the bridge's arch of stone, 
Is rounded in the stream." 

And so it is in the providence of God, though some 
of the reasons for his dealings with Moses have been 
explicitly revealed to us. There was one sad passage in 
his history, and that was when the whole multitude were 
fainting for water, and when God told him to go and 
speak to the rock, and a refreshing stream would flow 
forth, and when, worn out as he was by the murmurings, 
the accusations and the apostasies of the people, he lost 
his temper for once, and assumed the power of working a 
miracle, and spoke unadvisedly with his lips, "Ye rebels, 
must we fetch you water out of this rock?" And then, 
instead of speaking quietly to the rock, he smote it twice, 
and thus dishonored God before the people. And then 
he was informed that because of this act, by which he 
had failed to honor God in the eyes of the nation, the 
penalty should be as public as the offence, and that he 
would not be allowed to cross that river, or see the goodly 
mountain, the Lebanon, so long the object of his aspira- 
tion. 

And yet, my friends, when God denies the request of 
one of his children, although he may withhold a particular 



280 SERMONS. 

blessing, he always makes a compensation by giving an 
equivalent — by giving something better. If Paul comes 
and beseeches the Lord thrice that the thorn may be taken 
out of his flesh, and if the Lord denies that request, Paul 
goes on with the thorn still rankling; but the discipline 
he undergoes prepares him for the vision of the third 
heaven, and then for a mansion there, which was not a 
vision, but a reality, a home, and an eternal inheri- 
tance. 

Oh! never was he so near his rest and reward as at 
the very time he was consigned to the darkness and filth 
of the Mamertine dungeon, previous to his martyrdom; 
just as I had occasion to say to you this morning, that 
our Lord was never as dear to his Father, never as near 
to the excellent glory to which he ascended, as when he 
went down into Gethsemane and when he went up to 
the cross. If the Lord does not give you the exact thing 
that you are asking for, he will give you an equivalent, 
or he will give you something better. When he denied 
this petition of his servant Moses, then immediately, by 
his sweet submission, the "meekness" of that man of 
God was perfected, it received its final transforming 
touch. Then Moses made the last sacrifice that could 
be made to the divine will. God, indeed, pressed to his 
lips a cup that was full of bitter disappointment, but with 
a steady hand he took it and drank it to the dregs; "and 
then God put into his hands another cup, filled with the 
wine of consolation, and thus he had his recompense ; and 
Moses was never so Moses-like, Moses was never so 
Christ-like," as when he said, "If possible, grant me this 
request; nevertheless, thy will, not mine, be done." 
Moses did not remonstrate, did not murmur; he ac- 
quiesced in the decision of the Lord, and just as soon as 
he found out that it was not the purpose of God to permit 



OBLIGATIONS AT LAST FULFILLED. 281 

him to cross the water, he filled up the little time remain- 
ing to him in active duty. 

Oh ! what an example, and what a lesson, to the aged 
people in the kingdom of Christ, never to lay down the 
weapons of their warfare, never to resign themselves to 
supineness, saying, "I have done enough; I have ful- 
filled my vocation ;" but, inspired by the example of this 
man, who worked on to the very minute he began to 
ascend Nebo, can say, "My arduous work will not be 
done till I have got my crown." After Moses was for- 
bidden to cross the river, how did he employ the remnant 
of time that remained to him? He made the speeches 
recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy, and recited to 
the people the whole history of God's dealings with them ; 
he made every appeal to their generosity, to their honor, 
to their faith, to their gratitude, to stand fast to their 
colors in the service of the Captain of their salvation. 
He did that, and then he took the law he had written 
and put it in the hands of the priests, and, lest the priests 
should corrupt it, he also put it in the custody of the 
elders, that they might have jurisdiction over the priests, 
and that the law might remain unchanged in its purity; 
and then, having done, this, he quietly appointed Joshua 
as his successor. And when the critical moment came 
for him to depart, we have a scene which is not described 
in the Old Testament at all ; we only have it in the writ- 
ings of Josephus. It may be an imaginary one, but it 
is a very natural one. He said that when Moses, in full 
possession of his health and vigor — how strange for a 
man to go to his death in that superb condition ! — in the 
full possession of mental and physical powers, began to 
ascend the mountain, all the women of the tribes came 
after him, beating upon their breasts, the children weep- 
ing and wailing, universal distress and lamentation pre- 



282 SERMONS. 

vailing everywhere, while those who watched him saw 
how he seemed to diminish as he went, becoming just a 
speck in the distance, hardly discernible away up on the 
heights of Nebo, until he vanished forever from human 
view. This was the last of earth, and now heaven begins. 
The Lord received him on that lonely peak; the Lord 
gently laid him down, and kissed away his life with a 
kiss of eternal love and reconciliation, and from lonely 
Nebo, Moses went up to the general assembly of the 
church of the first born, and took his place in the ranks 
of the glorified. That was his recompense. 

I was in the chamber of a young minister who was 
dying. He said: "I have often wanted to see Palestine. 
I have often thought how sweet it would be to visit Beth- 
lehem, where the Saviour was born; to go to Nazareth, 
where he lived ; to tread the shores of the lake around 
which he walked, and to visit the city where he offered 
himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. But," 
said he, "I won't miss Palestine, because I am going in a 
little while to a better country, where I shall behold the 
delectable mountains, and the city of the great King, and 
the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
There was a lovely girl — a member of this church, a 
good many years ago — who was dying, in her perfect 
senses, quite conscious of all that was happening around 
her, and when I took up the Bible to read a few verses 
at her request, I said, "My dear, what shall I read to 
you?" She said, "Read me a part of the seventh chapter 
of Revelation;" and when I read it to her she said, "I 
was almost there; I heard those songs; I saw those 
visions." So Moses saw the earthly Canaan just before 
he entered the heavenly gates. He did not care now 
for the associations which he expected to enjoy in Pales- 
tine, in visiting the tombs of the old patriarchs, because 



OBLIGATIONS AT LAST FULFILLED. 283 

in a few minutes he was to be walking with the patriarchs 
themselves in the glory everlasting. This was his all- 
sufficient recompense. This was his satisfying recom- 
pense. 

You have read accounts of imposing funerals, and of 
the honors paid — and oftentimes justly paid — to the 
remains of the great and good. There never was a 
funeral like the funeral of Moses. The Lord buried him ; 
and no man knoweth the place of his sepulchre unto this 
day. And, my friends, there is something very interest- 
ing in the thought that Moses, after all, was not buried 
in Canaan. There was something very fitting, when we 
come to think of it, in the fact that he was buried outside 
of Canaan ; that he was buried out in that heathen land 
of Moab, intimating to us that the law that Moses had 
written at the command of God was not to be a sectional 
code, confined to Palestine ; that the religious institutions 
of which he had been the founder were not to be im- 
prisoned in that limited strip of country, one hundred 
and twenty miles in length by forty in breadth, but that 
they were to be institutions for the world; and althougn 
no one knows the place where Moses was buried out in 
that wild territory, there stands Mount Sinai to com- 
memorate his life and death, and Mount Sinai is the 
grand monument of Moses. He needs no other. Then, 
again, the fact that he was not permitted to enter Canaan, 
and that he was not buried there, is also an intimation 
that is very animating and encouraging to us ; that God 
no longer has a sacred soil. There is no country in the 
world which monopolizes the divine regard. Moab is 
now as dear to God as the land on the other side of the 
river; and in the fact that Moses was buried outside 
of Canaan we have a dim prophecy that all the nations 
shall by and by serve the God of Israel ; a dim prophecy 



284 SERMONS. 

that the boundaries of Israel shall be widened until they 
embrace all who worship Israel's God; and when I say 
that Moses received compensation, and that when God 
denies one thing he gives a better, I close my discourse 
this evening by saying that, after all, Moses did enter 
the Promised Land; after all, he was permitted to do 
what he prayed God to be permitted to do, and what was 
forbidden at the time, for when that supreme moment 
came in the life of our Lord, when he stood upon the 
mountain, transfigured, there came down to converse with 
him Moses and Elias ; and from that summit Moses over- 
looked the land; from that summit he contemplated the 
place where the great sacrifice was to be made, where that 
redemption was to be achieved which finally would bring 
peace on the earth and universal subjection to Messiah's 
gentle reign. 

My friends, we call Canaan the land of promise. It 
is no longer the land of promise. Our land of promise 
is not terrestrial. You have a land of promise, and so 
have I. We are journeying to the promised land, but that 
land is not bounded by geographical lines ; it is not 
separated from us by an intervening river, like the Jordan. 
It is a promised land, but the Canaan of old was but a 
dim and clouded type of the land we love, and are looking 
for ; it is the land into which God has been gathering the 
purest and the best of earth — many of the members of 
our churches, many of our friends and kindred. 

Where are those that worshipped with us years ago? 
Where are those who commenced the journey of life with 
us — the friends of our youth, our school-mates ? My 
heart was greatly touched yesterday, or the day before, 
when I saw the notice of the sudden death of the Rev. 
Dr. Joseph M. Atkinson, of North Carolina, who was 
my class-mate at college, and my dear friend ever since. 



OBLIGATIONS AT LAST FULFILLED. 285 

Yes, they drop away; but they go one by one to the 
meeting-^place, and we travel onward in the way our 
fathers trod, and in the way our friends have trodden, 
or it may be our children, to the place where the saints 
of all ages in harmony meet to be forever with one an- 
other, and with the Lord. With what ineffable delight, 
with what joy inexpressible, must they look upon Christ, 
and then, as they look upon one another, discover in every 
face something of Christ's beauty, and see how every 
form is irradiated with the glory of the risen Redeemer. 
Oh! that is the land of promise. That is the "better 
country" towards which we are journeying. May God 
take you, my friends — may he take you by the hand 
and lead you safely on, and safely through the bright 
gates of Paradise, to the home where there are no blighted 
hopes or unfulfilled aspirations, but where you will find 
"every longing satisfied" with the salvation which is not 
only "full," but eternal. 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY AN 
EVIDENCE OF ITS DIVINE ORIGIN: 

A LECTURE, 

Delivered at the University of Virginia. 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY AN 
EVIDENCE OF ITS DIVINE ORIGIN. 

MORE than eighteen hundred years ago, amidst the 
shadows of the night, and the gloom of a narrow 
defile near the city of Jerusalem, there might have been 
seen the dim outline of a human form, prostrate upon the 
ground, uttering plaintive cries, and exhibiting evidences 
of the most overwhelming sorrow. 

Presently lights were seen glancing through the foli- 
age, and the heavy tramp of a company of men was heard. 
A band of soldiers, and others, bearing lanterns and 
torches and weapons, advanced, and took into custody 
the mysterious mourner. A little company of friends 
witnessed the capture, but they had neither the strength 
nor the courage to attempt a rescue, and seeing him in 
the keeping of the soldiers, they all forsook him and fled. 

The next day a tumultuous crowd darkened the sum- 
mit of a hill, on which three crosses had been erected. 
On one of these crosses the captive of the preceding 
night was hanging in the agonies of death. But strange 
prodigies attended that crucifixion. All nature gave signs 
of unwonted agitation. The earth, as if instinct with life, 
shuddered as the crimson drops trickled upon it. It 
became pervaded by an emotion which seemed to pierce 
its heart and thrill through its entire frame. Upon its 
quaking surface the forms of the shrouded dead were 
revealed to the eyes of the terror-stricken living, while 
over the opening tombs, the rending rocks, and the part- 
ing veil of the temple, the sun wrapped himself in dark- 
ness, and thus pursued his journey. 
19 



2 9 o SERMONS. 

Nor was the sympathy of nature wholly inarticulate. 
It found an interpreter in the centurion, who, convinced 
by these prodigies of the divinity of the sufferer, ex- 
claimed, "Truly this was the Son of God." But strange 
as it may appear, while this heathen soldier is bearing 
such noble testimony to the character of the crucified 
Jesus, his own followers abandon all confidence in him. 
They did hope that he would prove the long-expected 
Deliverer — the light of Israel, and the salvation of the 
ends of the earth ; but, now they believed themselves to 
have been cruelly deceived. It was a bitter disappoint- 
ment, but there was no help for it. Their fondly cher- 
ished hopes must be buried in the tomb in which they 
believed him to be sealed, the prisoner of death, until the 
final judgment. 

But soon after, a surprising change took place in the 
feelings and in the conduct of these timid, disheartened 
men. Having been scattered, they suddenly rally again, 
their hopes revive, their confidence is reanimated. They 
are no longer wavering or fearful ; on the contrary, they 
are decided and courageous. No argument can shake 
their faith — no terrors can daunt their resolution. De- 
cision — intrepidity — the loftiest heroism characterize 
the men who a little while ago were appalled at the death 
of their Leader, and who trembled lest there should be 
any suspicion of their connection with him. They them- 
selves furnish the explanation of this sudden and other- 
wise inexplicable change in their views and feelings. 
They assert that their crucified Lord is alive. Every- 
where, at all times, in the face of all dangers, they per- 
sist in the declaration that they have seen him, conversed 
with him, and possess the most undeniable proofs that he 
has risen from the dead. So firmly has this conviction 
possessed them — so wonderfully does it animate them, 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 291 

that they prepare to traverse their own, and even foreign 
lands, for the sole purpose of proclaiming salvation 
through the crucified and risen Jesus. 

Whether its earliest heralds were mistaken, or correct 
in their belief of the resurrection of Christ, is not now a 
point under discussion. The fact that such was their 
avowed conviction is all that concerns us at present. That 
they did maintain this doctrine — that they made it the 
basis of their creed — the theme of their proclamation, is 
equally admitted by the Christian and the Infidel. Now 
of the result of these labors we have two accounts — the 
one furnished by the friends of Christianity, the other 
by its foes. Both of these concur in two important par- 
ticulars. They agree in their representations of the won- 
derfully rapid diffusion of the new faith, and of the 
feeble and inconsiderable instruments employed in its 
propagation. 

We learn from the writers of the New Testament that 
the first triumphs of Christianity commenced in Jerusa- 
lem — the very city which had clamored for the cruci- 
fixion of Christ. A few days after his departure from the 
world there was an assemblage of disciples, amounting 
to one hundred and twenty in number. In a little more 
than a week after, three thousand were converted in Jeru- 
salem under one sermon of the apostles. This number 
was in a very short time increased to five thousand. Nor 
were the labors of the apostles confined to Jerusalem. 
They traversed the whole land of Judea with wonderful 
success in gaining numerous disciples. Even a great 
company of priests became obedient to the faith. Not to 
dwell upon particulars, it is sufficient to remark, that 
before the author of the Acts of the Apostles reaches the 
twenty-third chapter of his brief history of the infant 
church, he asserts that thousands {fxoptado<; i myriads) 



2& SERMONS. 

of the Jews were zealous believers. And before he con- 
cludes his narrative, he informs us that the religion of the 
Cross had penetrated Italy and Asia Minor, and had com- 
menced its aggressions even upon the continent of Africa. 
In less than ten years from the time when Paul went forth 
on his missionary tour from Antioch, it was said of him 
and his companions that they had "turned the world up- 
side down." 

The Christian Fathers enlarge upon the triumphs of 
the cross, and dwell with exultation upon the splendid 
progress of the gospel from land to land, and from con- 
tinent to continent. Justin Martyr, who flourished in the 
beginning of the second century, asserted that there was 
not a nation, either Greek or barbarian, or of any other 
name, even of those who wandered in tribes, or lived in 
tents, among whom prayers and thanksgivings were not 
offered to the Father and Creator of the universe, through 
the name of the crucified Jesus. Tertullian, who lived 
about half a century later, exclaims, "In whom else have 
all nations believed, but in Christ who lately came?" 

In his appeal to the Roman governors, he indulges in 
this exulting language, "We are but of yesterday, and we 
have filled all places belonging to you, your cities, islands, 
castles, towns, councils, the palace, senate and forum, we 
have left you only your temples." And he adds, that 
should the Christians withdraw in a body from the 
empire, the world would be amazed at the solitude and 
desolation that would ensue. 

Such is the testimony of the friends of Christianity — 
let us see how far these assertions are sustained by its 
foes. 

About thirty years after the crucifixion, Rome became 
the theatre of an imperial villany, which has scarcely a 
parallel in history. The Emperor Nero became the in- 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 293 

cendiary of his own capital. To escape the odium of such 
an atrocity, he accused the Christians of having set fire to 
the city, and visited them with the most inhuman cruel- 
ties. Tacitus declares that those who bore the vulgar 
appellation of Christians derived their name and origin 
from Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius, had suffered 
death by the sentence of Pilate ; that for a while the dire 
superstition was checked, but it again burst forth, and 
not only spread itself over Judea, but was even intro- 
duced into Rome. Now no writer is more carefully 
guarded in his statements than Tacitus — none more 
sedulously free from exaggeration, and therefore we 
know it is no hyperbole in which he indulges, when he 
speaks of the "bursting forth" of the "superstition" as 
he would of the leaping flame of a conflagration, or the 
headlong rush of a torrent. Nor would he characterize 
an inconsiderable number as a "vast multitude" within 
the very walls of the capital of the world. His account 
of the sudden revival, and triumphant progress of the 
gospel, reminds us of the New Testament narrative of the 
descent of the Holy Ghost, and the simultaneous con- 
version of the thousands of Jerusalem. 

The elegant Pliny, governor of the remote provinces 
of Pontus and Bithynia, bordering upon the Euxine, 
found these distant regions so filled with Christians that 
he addressed a letter to the Emperor Trajan, asking ad- 
vice as to the proper mode of treating them. He com- 
plains that the number of the culprits was so great as to 
call for serious consultation ; he declares that their super- 
stition, as he characterizes it, had seized not only upon 
the cities, but upon the lesser towns, and open country ; 
that the pagan temples had been almost deserted, the 
sacred solemnities suspended, and that scarcely any pur- 
chasers could be found for the sacrificial victims. No- 



294 SERMONS. 

thing asserted in the Acts of the Apostles more vividly 
illustrates the triumphant conquests of Christianity than 
do these statements of the pagan Pliny. 

But it is needless to extend this testimony, either of 
the advocates or opponents of Christianity, with regard 
to its vast and unparalleled conquests in the primitive 
ages. It was of rapid growth. It was not slowly evolved 
from a germ like the mythology of the ancients, origi- 
nating in the dim antiquity of some remote and obscure 
tribe, to be developed and perfected by the accretions of 
long centuries — but it sprang into being, and into vig- 
orous maturity, before its enemies had any reason to ap- 
prehend its power or the impossibility of its overthrow. 
Or, to change the figure, it was not like the coral island 
insensibly emerging during the progress of ages from 
unknown depths of the ocean, imperceptibly rising above 
the surface, and expanding into a continent, but was 
rather like the sudden vision of some newly-formed orb, 
springing fresh and glowing from its Maker's hand, and 
hung up in its symmetry and beauty to shine as a light 
forever in the firmament of heaven. Certainly and de- 
lightfully true is it that Christianity, with its celestial 
radiance, darted, as the beams of the morning sun from 
city to city, and from continent to continent, until kin- 
dreds, people, tongues, and nations, were blessed by the 
light, and warmed by the heat into a new and diviner 
life. 

All the testimony which we have on the subject, from 
whatever source it comes, unites in illustrating the swiftly 
advancing and victorious march of Christianity to uni- 
versal dominion. Its progress was signalized by the 
abolition of the corrupt and cruel institutions of heathen- 
ism, and by the establishment of order, harmony, and 
prosperity, in the place of misrule, dissension, and wretch- 



THE SUCCESS OF. CHRISTIANITY. 295 

edness. The bloody altars of superstition were over- 
thrown. The temples of pagan deities were abandoned to 
solitude and decay. The most hallowed shrines grew 
mute — or, as if smitten with sudden fear, uttered half- 
audible responses. Solemnly does the choral verse of 
Milton celebrate these desolations: 

"The oracles are dumb, 
No voice or hideous hum 

Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving ; 
Apollo from his shrine 
Can, no more divine, 

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. 
No nightly trance, or breathed spell 
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 

Peor and Baalim 

Forsake their temples dim, 

With that twice-battered God of Palestine; 
And mooned Ashtaroth 
Heav'n's queen and mother both, 

Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shrine. 

And sullen Moloch fled, 
Hath left in shadows dread 

His burning idol all of blackest hue; 
In vain, with cymbals' ring, 
They call the grisly king, 

In dismal dance about the furnace blue. 

Nor is Osiris seen, 

In Memphian grove or green." 



Thus was the advance of Christianity from zone to zone 
attested by the overthrow of idol gods and temples. And 
equally triumphant was it in conflict with every opposing 
force. At first ignored, then despised, then trampled upon 
by the civil power — it commanded respect — then in- 



296 SERMONS. 

spired fear — then displayed its majestic might, and be- 
came terrible as an army with banners. It stretched forth 
its resistless hand, and took to itself the power. It en- 
robed itself in the imperial purple. The banner of the 
cross floated from the dome of the world's capitol, and the 
triumphant church placed upon her brow the diadem of 
the Caesars. The last page of Eusebius glowingly depicts 
the blessedness of the reign of Constantine, under whom 
had been extended the dominion, not of pagan, but of 
Christian Rome, from the rising sun to the last borders 
of declining day, while his exulting subjects, in chants 
and hymns, extolled God the universal King, and gave 
him glory for the victories of his church. 

But when we have asserted and illustrated the simple 
fact that Christianity did thus rapidly attain to universal 
diffusion, we have only entered upon the threshold of the 
subject. If we wonder at the celerity of its propagation, 
much more will our wonder be excited when we come to 
contemplate the numerous and formidable obstacles 
which opposed its progress — when we consider how 
every earthly influence combined to prevent its extension, 
how all the prejudices and powers of the world conspired 
for its annihilation, while there were no visible agencies 
at all adequate to the production of a result so stupen- 
dous, as its advancement from victory to victory, until 
it achieved the conquest of the world. 

There is indeed one satisfactory method of accounting 
for the success of Christianity, viz., by ascribing it to 
that power which built the worlds. But setting aside for 
the present this single method of explaining its triumphs, 
its success becomes the most inexplicable of all wonders. 

Christianity is now an existing fact. We can review 
its history — we can trace its entire career from its origin, 
through all its struggles and victories, down to the pres- 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 297 

ent hour. But were our standpoint the beginning of the 
first century, instead of the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury of the Christian era, and were we from that point of 
observation required to estimate the probabilities of its 
success, by all the modes of reasoning known to man, we 
would be forced to the conclusion that it never could pre- 
vail. Our verdict would be that its success would be 
contrary to all the laws of mind, to all the experience of 
the past, to all the relations of cause and effect. There 
was a time when this was the verdict of all who had heard 
of the pretensions of Christianity, with the exception of a 
dozen obscure and illiterate individuals in the land of 
Judea. Even had Christianity commenced its career by 
adapting itself to the natural passions of the human heart 
— had it sought to allure men by the proffer of earthly 
power, wealth and pleasure — had it imposed no re- 
straints and required no sacrifices — had it been advo- 
cated by philosophers and orators — had genius, art, and 
fashion lent it their fascinations — had rank and power 
afforded it their countenance and support, even then, in a 
world composed of nations and races so dissimilar in 
intelligence, tastes, interests, and habits, we could hardly 
have anticipated its universal prevalence — for when have 
all mankind agreed in any opinion, or become simultane- 
ously subject to the same influence? Said Celsus, one of 
the early fathers of skepticism, "A man must be very 
weak to suppose that Greeks and barbarians can ever 
unite under the same system of religion !" But we pro- 
ceed to show that Christianity, so far from possessing 
such natural attractions and adventitious aids as have 
been alluded to, commenced its career with pretensions, 
with demands, with advocates, with prospects, all cumu- 
lated to excite scorn and opposition — calculated to bring 
it into direct and fierce collision with all established 



298 SERMONS. 

opinions and venerable institutions — with all the philos- 
ophy of the learned, with all the creeds of the supersti- 
tious, with all the jealousy of governments, with all the 
enmity of the natural heart, while the agencies employed 
for its extension were, to human appearance, not only 
feeble, but repulsive and despicable. 

The very birthplace of Christianity was inauspicious. 
The Jewish nation was the most unpopular branch of the 
human family. Their land was the Bceotia of the world. 
It was regarded as the native home of fanaticism, bigotry, 
and detestable superstition. We may learn from Tacitus 
in what estimation the Jewish people were regarded by 
their neighbors. He stigmatizes them as a race exces- 
sively depraved, prone to lust, and accounting no abomi- 
nation as unlawful. He declares that what others deem 
sacred, they reckon profane ; and what others abhor, they 
freely tolerate. Now, a religion emanating from a people 
regarded with such aversion by the rest of mankind, 
would be prejudged and condemned without an investi- 
gation. 

But how could Christianity originate among the Jews 
themselves? It is true, that about the time of the birth 
of Christ there was among them a very general expecta- 
tion of the advent of some extraordinary personage, 
whom their prophets had denominated Messiah. In 
glowing terms they had described him as a mighty con- 
queror who should deliver his people from foreign domi- 
nation, impart new splendors to the throne of David, and 
extend over the world the sceptre of universal empire. 
Hence the Jews, from whom civil independence was now 
departing, eagerly seized upon such declarations, and 
giving to them a literal interpretation, revelled in the 
anticipation of the national supremacy and glory to which 
their deliverer would exalt them. And although their 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 299 

prophets had also spoken of the humiliations and woes of 
their Messiah, they would have readily forgiven him any 
failure in fulfilling these predictions, had he but possessed 
the power to elevate them to that temporal aggrandise- 
ment which they coveted. 

But when they saw him enter their capital without 
pomp or pageantry, surrounded by publicans and fisher- 
men, instead of a splendid retinue of courtiers, followed 
by the poor, the blind, and the halt — how great was their 
disappointment and chagrin — how bitter their derision 
of his kingly pretensions ! Nazareth was his reputed 
home, and Galileans his chosen associates — but Nazareth 
and Galilean were names of reproach even in Jerusalem. 
A Nazarene our Messiah ! A Galilean our King ! No, 
exclaimed they, this is not he; when Christ cometh no 
man knoweth whence he is. Is not this the carpenter's 
son ? And above all, when they saw him unresisting and 
deserted — spat upon and derided — and then led away 
to ignominious crucifixion, they regarded this as a fit 
termination for so miserable an imposture. "Away with 
him !" "Crucify him I" "Let his memory perish !" And 
yet — astonishing to relate, and strangely true — multi- 
tudes of those who had joined in this cry, and who had 
witnessed his death on the cross, in a few days after, 
under the preaching of Peter, an obscure Galilean fisher- 
man, were cut to the heart, and openly — exultingly — 
professed faith in the crucified Jesus, and became his de- 
voted disciples ! 

How is this mighty revulsion of feeling, this total 
change of life, to be accounted for? How came it that 
the deep-rooted prejudices of thousands were annihilated 
in a twinkling, or exchanged for admiration and love 
stronger than death? 

These very men had doubtless witnessed many of the 



300 SERMONS. 

wonderful works of Christ — they had been spectators 
of his affecting death — they had seen the heaving of 
the rocks, and felt the quaking of the earth, and had been 
shrouded in the preternatural darkness; and was the 
preaching of the darkened heavens, and of the bursting 
tombs, and of the trembling earth, and of the Saviour's 
dying groans, less eloquent than the preaching of Galilean 
Peter? Surely not. How, why then, were the Jews now 
convinced? What overpowering spell so suddenly con- 
quered their wilful prejudice, their determined unbelief? 
Surely here is mystery wholly inexplicable by all natural 
causes. Was it a mere human power which thus con- 
quered them? Then it was a human power also which 
cleaved the rocks, and shook the earth, and clothed the 
sun with darkness. 

Such was the first triumph of Christianity. But the 
heralds of the cross do not confine their labors to Pales- 
tine. They visit pagan lands. They proclaim the resur- 
rection of Christ, and the doctrine of salvation through 
him alone, to the most barbarous, and to the most enlight- 
ened nations of the Gentile world. They seem to make 
no distinction between savage and civilized people. They 
evince no preference for any particular field of labor, but 
visit with equal readiness the most refined and polished 
cities, and the most benighted and barbarous provinces. 
They are as confident and courageous in the proudest 
capital as in the obscurest hamlet. The early champions 
of the cross did not hover about the outskirts of civiliza- 
tion, like Cossacks around the camps of disciplined 
armies, only to make sudden and irregular assaults, and 
then to flee to the wilds of the desert ! It would, indeed, 
have been a suspicious circumstance, if Christianity had 
evinced a preference for the haunts of ignorant and sav- 
age tribes, and had it selected these as the theatre of its 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 301 

first aggressions, untutored and unreflecting men might 
easily have been made the dupes of an imposture, how- 
ever base and imprudent. But on the contrary — in the 
words of a venerable divine — "In this respect Christi- 
anity stands upon high vantage ground. Its Author first 
announced himself to an age celebrated in story and im- 
mortalized in song. His apostles travelled over classic 
ground. They established churches in the land of Euclid, 
of Aristotle and Longinus ; of Demosthenes, Solon and 
Lycurgus; of Homer and Pindar, Atticus and Cicero, 
Sallust and Livy, Horace, Ovid and Virgil." It was the 
Augustan age — an age distinguished for its constellation 
of poets, orators, and statesmen — an age eminent among 
all others for its inquisitive researches, its ingenious dis- 
putations, its vast and varied erudition, its bold specula- 
tions, and unfettered freedom of opinion. Not only were 
Ephesus and Antioch, and other renowned cities of Asia, 
honored by apostolic labors, but another city — more re- 
nowned than all — a city where the merchant found his 
exchange, the student his university, the artist his studio, 
the pleasure-loving his paradise, and the wit his admiring 
audience — the classic capital of the most classic land — 
there, too, the Apostle proclaimed his message, in the 
hearing of the volatile, ingenious Athenians (those true 
Parisians of antiquity) — and proclaimed it, too, with 
just as much confidence and expectation of success, as if, 
instead of the Areopagus, he had stood in the cottage of 
some Galilean fisherman ! Nor did his labors terminate 
until his desire to see Rome was gratified; until Caesar's 
household heard from his lips the story of the cross. 

But what popular doctrines do the apostles proclaim, 
as they journey from city to city, and from province to 
province, captivating and entrancing one quarter of the 
globe after another? How contrary to all that we might 



302 SERMONS. 

anticipate, is the answer ! Doctrines so strange and in- 
credible as to provoke ridicule and scorn, or so unpalat- 
able and offensive as to excite disgust and anger. What 
could have been more calculated to awaken the derision 
of the multitude than the proclamation of the resurrection 
of the dead ? In an age when the immortality of the soul 
was scarcely believed, nothing could have appeared more 
preposterous than the assertion that the body which had 
seen corruption, and returned to its native earth, would be 
revived, reanimated, and clothed with immortality. It 
was the annunciation of this doctrine which caused the 
Apostle to be regarded as a madman by the Roman. And 
when he visited Athens, whose inhabitants were ever 
eager "to hear some new thing," he presented to their 
minds a novelty too strange and startling. When he 
spoke of Jesus and the resurrection, they characterized 
him as a "setter forth of strange gods" So vague were 
their ideas of his meaning, that they seem to have re- 
garded the resurrection [avaaraato) as one divinity, and 
Jesus as another ; and when more fully informed as to the 
Apostle's meaning, they turned away in disgust from a 
tenet so incredible. 

What ! were they to be told that the bodies which had 
mouldered and mingled with their kindred dust, and then 
been dissipated by all the winds of heaven — that the 
bodies whose very tombs had crumbled to atoms, and 
vanished, not only from the sight, but from the remem- 
brance of men — were to be raised to life again ? Were 
they to be persuaded that the elements would ever dis- 
gorge the particles which they had swallowed up ? — that 
not only the earth, but that the sea should give up its 
dead? that the forms of those who went down into the 
fathomless caverns of the deep, in the shock of battle and 
tempest, would emerge from their hidden chambers, and 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 303 

darken the blue bosom of the ocean as they arose to be 
judged with those who had slept in the earth? Would 
the warm pulses of life again throb in the scattered dust 
of Aristotle? Would Socrates, and Plato, and those 
ancient sages who had indulged rather in the fond hope 
than in the confident belief of a future existence, again 
stand erect upon the earth, and gaze upon that sun which 
centuries ago had looked down upon their graves? No, 
a doctrine so startling and incredible was worthy only of 
mockery. 

Even the doctrine of a future life, as it was presented 
by the apostles, had nothing in it attractive to the natural 
heart. The heaven which they revealed to the faith of 
mortals was no such Elysium as that which mythology 
had delighted to present ; no flowery abode of sensual joys 
and pleasures ministering to the natural tastes and pas- 
sions of men ; — no Paradise, where feasting and revelry 
ruled the hour, where black-eyed Houris reposed in every 
bower, and whose perfumed air ever vibrated with dulcet 
melodies, such as Mahomet promised to the faithful (and 
of which he permitted them to enjoy such large preliba- 
tions in this life) — but a world whose element was holi- 
ness, one which excluded all but the pure in heart, which 
did not offer one attraction to the covetous, the ambitious, 
the licentious, or the revengeful — one which could be 
attained only by a path narrow, rugged and difficult of 
ascent. 

Point out to men a heaven where the pleasures of 
sense may be enjoyed in a more exquisite degree, and 
enjoyed forever; a heaven to which Dives may go with 
his purple robes and rosy wine; where all the natural 
inclinations and unhallowed propensities may find un- 
bounded gratification, freed from the restraints of law and 
the checks of conscience ; — and men will rivet their eager 



304 SERMONS. 

eyes upon it, and, if possible, force the gates and scale 
the ramparts of a paradise so alluring. But, discarding 
the doctrine of a divine influence, what could so change 
the natural heart of man as to cause it to aspire to the 
pure spiritual joys of a heaven like that revealed in the 
gospel? Whence did myriads obtain those tastes which 
gave them a relish for the hallowed enjoyments and em- 
ployments of glorified beings? Whence did impure 
grovelling mortals derive those qualifications which pre- 
pared them for the exalted services of a world of purity, 
for the dignity and the dominion of kings and priests 
unto God? If such a heaven became attractive to the 
eyes and hearts of mortals, it was because their eyes were 
opened, by some divinely exerted power, to the perception 
of spiritual beauty to which they had been blind before, 
and their hearts to the reception and love of truths which 
otherwise had been objects of disgust and aversion. 

But how was a title to the abode of the blessed to be 
obtained? Would the populace be attracted, conciliated 
and won by the proclamation of the only name under 
heaven whereby salvation is even possible? 

On the contrary, would they not be filled with com- 
mingled disgust and displeasure when they learned that 
the great burden of the apostle's message was salvation 
through the merits of a crucified Jew ? 

We have already adverted to the estimation in which 
the Romans held the Hebrew race. And if such was their 
contempt and aversion toward that whole people, now 
that they were in the very act of wresting the sceptre 
from Judah, how could they be induced to acknowledge 
a plebeian of that nation as a king — a plebeian despised 
and rejected by the vast majority of his own country- 
men? 

Well has it been said — had Jesus been still living — 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 305 

had he advanced toward the capital, as an ambitious war- 
rior at the head of a brave army — Romans might have 
respected him as a gallant foe ; still the Temple of Janus 
would have been thrown open, and mail-clad legions 
would have marched to meet the invader. But if no 
greater honor than this could have been shown him, how 
could the Romans, ignorant of prophecy and of the spir- 
itual nature of his kingdom, receive him as a King and 
Saviour? Would they not despise him and deride his 
pretensions, even more than his own countrymen did pre- 
vious to the day of Pentecost? 

Accustomed as we have ever been to associate the 
cross with all that is sacred and venerable, we can have 
no conception of the disgust which would arise in the 
Roman mind at the proposal to elevate a crucified man 
to the rank of a divine Saviour — and withal a crucified 
Jew — a Jew who was born in a stable. What witticisms, 
what jeers, what scoffs, would overwhelm the advocates 
of such a Divinity! No wonder that a Roman governor 
should have charged one of them with being "mad." 
Should some one in this land assert the Godhead of an 
Indian who had been hanged upon a gallows, he would 
not more offend the moral sense of the community than 
did this doctrine of the apostles the proud and polished 
people to whom it was addressed. 

But what doctrines did the apostles proclaim which 
were not opposed to the sentiments of the natural heart? 
It is no compliment to a man to tell him that he is totally 
depraved, utterly helpless, and justly condemned. It is 
an impolitic way to attempt to gain adherents to a cause 
by demanding of them heavy sacrifices and painful self- 
denials. And no system of human invention, seeking the 
suffrages and applauses of the world, would have, de- 
manded as its -first requirement, self-crucifixion, and a 
20 



3 o6 SERMONS. 

renunciation of all that is most dear to the natural heart. 
Yet such were the exactions of Christianity. It was never 
offered to men as a speculative creed, intended merely to 
occupy the intellect ; but it was urged as a rule of action, 
to control the outer and inner life of man — to regulate 
not only external conduct, but to prescribe imperative 
laws for the government of the thoughts, desires and 
affections — condemning ambition, avarice, envy, intrigue, 
carnal ease, sensual indulgence — and enjoining meekness, 
temperance, forgiveness, love to God, love to man, love 
to enemies, purity of life, holiness of heart. 

Almost every precept of Christianity imposes a re- 
straint or demands the mortification of some passion or 
inclination of the heart. 

By nature, man is proud and self-sufficient : Chris- 
tianity declares him to be weak and dependent, and in- 
capable of self-guidance. Though man is naturally obsti- 
nate and self-willed, Christianity demands the subjection 
of every faculty and power to the law of another. Though 
man is naturally selfish and intent on the gratification 
of his own wishes, regardless of the happiness of others, 
Christianity enjoins a philanthropy which is wholly dis- 
interested ; it demands a sacrifice of personal ease and 
interest for the promotion of the good of others, and 
ordains a charity which shall embrace in its arms the 
whole family of man. Though man is by nature prone 
to retaliation under a sense of wrong — though, for the 
moment, revenge is sweet when it is glutted by the de- 
struction of its victim, yet, even when the bosom is swell- 
ing with rage — when furious passions lash the soul into 
a tempest and drown the voice of reason — even then 
the clear, celestial tones of the gospel are heard, rising 
above the din of passion, saying, "Peace, be still." "Dearly 
beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 307 

wrath." "If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, 
give him drink !" 

When Homer gave to the world his portraiture of the 
most renowned hero of antiquity, the prominent traits of 
whose character the great Latin bard has summed up in 
one nervous line — 

" Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer," 

epithets which might furnish names for four devils, he 
did not offend the moral sense of his countrymen by such 
a delineation; neither was Greek nor Roman admiration 
of the character of this warrior diminished, even when 
he is represented as dragging the dead body of his gallant 
rival, bound to his chariot wheels, three times around the 
walls of Troy, and that, too, in the sight of his aged 
father. 

How foreign to all the genius and spirit of the age 
which witnessed its triumphs were the teachings of the 
gospel ! Plain, unlettered men. without wealth, or rank, 
or influence (and with one or two exceptions), without 
address or eloquence, went abroad proclaiming doctrines 
most novel, startling, unpalatable. "A crucified Christ 
was all their rhetoric," and yet no doctrines ever promul- 
gated, before or since that day, met with such universal 
favor — no teachings ever so penetrated and transformed 
human hearts, none ever gained a popularity so world- 
wide. But did Christianity obtain its unlimited su- 
premacy over the hearts of men, did it triumph over prin- 
cipalities, did it ascend a throne, and issue its undisputed 
edicts to the subjugated nations — by forbidding all that 
corrupt humanity craved, by enjoining all that corrupt 
humanity was averse to — by waging war of extermina- 
tion upon every depraved, and, therefore, cherished pas- 
sion, prejudice and propensity? Leaving out of view the 



3 o8 SERMONS. 

intervention of divine power, here is an enigma to be 
solved by some more gifted intellect than the world has 
yet been favored with. 

Another obstacle to the progress of Christianity was 
its uncompromising exclusiveness. It refused to come 
under the patronage of any other religion. It refused to 
take any other religion under its patronage. It would 
not even enter into a friendly alliance. It would not even 
make a treaty of peace. It proclaimed eternal warfare 
upon every other faith. Its Janus was never to be closed 
while an enemy survived. It demanded the overthrow of 
every altar and temple of paganism. Its aim was a total 
abrogation of all the religious systems of the world. It 
demanded the utter annihilation of institutions which the 
revolution of ages had rendered venerable and sacred in 
the memories of men. Claiming to be the only true re- 
ligion, it would not receive the false into its embrace. To 
every proposed affiliation its genius replied, What com- 
munion hath light with darkness? What concord hath 
Christ with Belial? It declared to paganism that its 
priests were jugglers and its gods a lie. It declared to 
Judaism that its mission had ended, that its glory had 
departed ; that it was now only the worthless scaffold 
around some completed palace, and as such, fit only to 
be thrown down. It declared to the sage that his pro- 
foundest speculations were vain j anglings. It ranked the 
Epicurean with the beasts, and the Stoic with the stones 
of the field. It estimated the wisdom of the scribe as 
lighter than vanity. It denounced the sleek and sancti- 
monious Pharisee as a disguised hypocrite, and rent in 
fragments the reverend garments whose hem men had 
stooped to kiss, and exhibited the wearer to the world 
as a naked child of the devil. 

Such was the attitude which Christianity assumed 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 309 

toward the time-hallowed systems of the world. Such 
was the attitude of a novel religion — one which sprung 
from a subjugated people — whose founder was a carpen- 
ter, and whose greatest apostle was a tentmaker. 

Far easier is it to change the kings than the gods — 
the government than the religion of any nation. Did ex- 
clusive, uncompromising, all-assuming Christianity adopt 
the right policy for effecting such a change ? 

Nor are we to suppose that polytheism had a slight 
hold upon the affections and prejudices of men. It com- 
mended itself to the favor of the sensual by the indulgence 
it permitted. The fires of unhallowed lust were kindled 
upon the very altars of paganism. It commended itself 
to the imagination of the refined by the beauty of its 
mythology. It placed genial household gods beneath 
every roof. It animated all nature with propitious deities. 
It gave Naiads to every fountain, and Dryads to every 
grove. Aurora rode upon the beams of the morning, and 
Iris clothed herself in the melting hues of the rainbow. 
Old ocean obeyed its trident-bearing god — the voices of 
spirits were heard along its flashing waves, and sportive 
Nereids gambolled upon its yellow sands. 

It commended itself to the taste of the common people 
by its gorgeously attired priests, its showy temples, its 
jocund festivals, its stately processions, and brilliant ritual 
services, rendered more attractive by all the charms de- 
rived from an alliance with music, painting, and sculpture. 
How seemingly hopeless the aggressions of Christianity, 
without imposing rites, without altars, without sacrifices, 
or visible gods — and utterly devoid of all external attrac- 
tions ! 

How can a religion of faith — a purely spiritual reli- 
gion — overturn systems venerable for antiquity, deeply 
entrenched in prejudices of men, endeared by association, 



310 SERMONS. 

up'held by the homage and personal devotion of statesmen 
and warriors, who felt honored in exchanging the gown 
and the armor for the sacerdotal vestments, that they 
might personally assist in the sacred ceremonies? How 
shall a superstition commending itself to the bosoms and 
business of men, pervading all the ramifications of social 
life, interwoven with all the departments of government, 
under whose auspices Greece had attained her highest 
heaven of classic renown, under whose favoring smiles 
Rome had achieved the conquest of the world — how 
shall a system thus founded, and thus supported, be sup- 
planted by an upstart faith which does not offer one at- 
traction to worldly pride, pleasure, or glory, but which, on 
the contrary, summons its votaries to a life of mortifica- 
tion and self-denial — to obloquy, and the ruin of all 
earthly prospects — whose open confession is, "If in this 
life only we have hope, we are of all men most miser- 
able?" With prospects like these, what earthly possi- 
bility is there of its triumph over the firmly-established 
and fondly-cherished institutions of polytheism? Expe- 
rience answers — reason, common sense answers — It 
cannot prevail; it must perish. Nevertheless, it did pre- 
vail; it did triumph. It scattered polytheism to the 
winds, it sent its idols to the moles and the bats, it laid its 
proudest temples in the dust, and on the ruins of the fallen 
fabric it planted the immovable foundations, and reared 
the eternal pillars of the Christian church. Is this august 
structure the work of human hands ? A stone-mason can 
build a wall; but does it therefore follow that he can 
build a world? 

We have now considered the obstacles to the success 
of Christianity arising from its innate ofTensiveness to 
human taste, prejudice, and reason, its failure to meet the 
exalted expectations of the Jews, the absurdity of its doc- 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 311 

trines in the estimation of enlightened pagans, the start- 
ling novelty of its precepts, its want of temporal rewards 
for its votaries, its unattractive spirituality, its destitution 
of all such sensuous charms as would captivate the vulgar, 
its uncompromising exclusiveness, and determined hos- 
tility to every other religion, and now it only remains to 
contemplate its triumph over one other obstacle, viz., over 
the active external opposition which it encountered on all 
sides — the desperate efforts of its enemies for its over- 
throw by means of slanderous tongues, and slanderous 
pens, and the dreadful sword of persecution. 

The success of Christianity under persecution is a 
strange and deeply interesting phenomenon. It would be 
impossible to specify all the forms of assault to which its 
enemies resorted. Wherever Christianity appeared, it 
excited the rage of various classes and orders of men, who 
opposed it from widely different motives. 

Professing to be a universal religion, its proclamations 
must needs go throughout all the earth, and be heard in 
the ends of the world. Its voice must mingle with the 
soft murmur of the Mediterranean waves, and with the 
hoarse tempests which thunder along the bleak shores of 
the frozen sea. It must come in contact with every phase 
of human character, as varied by different climates, de- 
grees of civilization, and forms of government, and hence 
it must excite an opposition as diversified as the abodes, 
customs, and interests of mankind. But for the present, 
leaving this extended field of observation, and confining 
our attention to the fortunes of Christianity in the Roman 
Empire alone, we can readily anticipate what a host of 
foes its aggressions would stir up among that people. 
Polytheism was the munificent patron both of the fine 
and mechanic arts. It gave employment to the painter, to 
the poet, and to the humblest artisan. It gave honor and 



312 SERMONS. 

emolument to the vast retinue of priests and officials in 
the service of the gods of every shrine and temple. It 
gave entertainment to the countless multitude in whose 
minds alternate emotions of awe, pleasure, and exultation, 
were enkindled by public games, processions and festivals. 
An innumerable sacerdotal throng of pontifices, au- 
gurs, vestals and flamens derived their support from the 
revenues of the temples, and from the public treasury. 
But should the doctrines of Christianity prevail, who 
would believe their venerable lies? Who would make 
them donation visits? Whence could they obtain bread, 
the impostures of their craft once exploded? It is not 
agreeable either to a mercenary politician or priest to 
lose office. As a matter of course, all the satellites, and 
retainers, and dependants of paganism, would rouse all 
their energies to resist the inroads of the gospel, which 
took away at once their credit and their means of subsist- 
ence. The common people would be enraged at the loss 
of their favorite entertainments. The philosophers would 
gnash their teeth against a system which closed their 
schools, and rendered their teachings contemptible. The 
higher classes of society, men of rank and influence, sena- 
tors and soldiers, men who derived new distinction by 
officiating at the ceremonials of religion, would indig- 
nantly frown upon a faith which mocked at their divini- 
ties and solemn mysteries. Kings and magistrates would 
regard with mingled fear and detestation such an over- 
turning of the religion which was incorporated with the 
state, which was sustained by proscription and prejudice, 
which was so interwoven with the civil and military insti- 
tutions of the country, that no warlike expedition could 
be ordered, and not even a seat taken in the senate, with- 
out accompanying religious ceremonies. Hence Chris- 
tianity was regarded as treason against the state. 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 313 

We cannot wonder, therefore, at the variety or the 
virulence of the assaults made upon so restless an agita- 
tor. The foulest slanders were verbally circulated, accus- 
ing Christians of dark, impure, and bloody rites. The 
acutest and most brilliant writers employed all their learn- 
ing and cunning to bring Christianity into contempt. 
Among others, Celsus, Porphyry, Symmachus, and the 
Emperor Julian, wrote treatises, fragments of which have 
come down to us, from which we learn, that although they 
did not deny the miracles of the gospel record, yet they 
assailed Christianity with a malignity which rivalled the 
ingenuity of Spinosa, the wit of Voltaire, and the ribaldry 
of Paine. 

But the final appeal of terrified and tottering pagan- 
ism was to the power of the government. The Roman 
monarchy, the greatest and strongest upon earth, directed 
all its might toward the overthrow, and, if possible, the 
extinction of the Christian church. 

A certain class of writers have indeed endeavored to 
create the impression that the Roman government was 
wonderfully liberal and tolerant towards the religions of 
other nations. But a closer examination into the best 
authorities on the subject will lead us to a very different 
conclusion. It is true that some of the emperors were 
disposed to be lenient and indulgent. There were inter- 
vals during which the church enjoyed seasons of com- 
parative tranquillity. It is also admitted that individuals 
were permitted to express their sentiments with a great 
degree of freedom. For example, upon the stage, and in 
the writings of the satiric poets, the keenest ridicule was 
directed towards the thieves, murderers, and adulterers, 
facetiously styled "the Immortal Gods," and winked at, 
perhaps enjoyed, by the magistrates themselves. The 
caustic irony of Plautus and Terence, the philosophic 



314 SERMONS. 

raillery of Cicero and Lucian, might be indulged with 
impunity. It is also true that when the Romans wished 
to conciliate a particular people they did not hesitate to 
express great reverence for the gods of that people. But 
Christianity was not the religion of any nation — but of a 
new sect. It was a religion demanding unconditional 
submission to its requirements, and refusing to enter into 
coalition with any form of idolatry. Hence, there was 
no motive, or policy, in treating it with conciliation. 
There was, on the contrary, everything to provoke jeal- 
ousy and hatred. And when one of the emperors pro- 
posed to give Jesus Christ a place among the gods of the 
nation, the proposal was rejected by the senate. 

Moreover, the Romans ascribed their greatness as a 
people, and the unexampled success of their arms, to the 
favor of their gods. It was the rhetorical boast of Min. 
Felix Octavius, that "because of exercising religious dis- 
cipline in the camp, Rome had stretched her dominions 
beyond the paths of the sun, and the limits of the ocean." 
Hence, however theoretically tolerant of other religions, 
there was often a political necessity for the exclusion of 
foreign rites. It was forbidden by law to pay religious 
honors to any deity which had not been recognized by a 
legislative act. S. JEmilius Paulus, during his consulship, 
ordered the temples of two foreign deities, not legally 
recognized, to be destroyed. On several occasions the 
senate felt itself constrained to exert its power to prevent 
religious innovations. Livy quotes an eloquent speech of 
one of the consuls against foreign rites. Dion Cassius has 
transmitted to us a celebrated oration, in which Maecenas 
demonstrates to Augustus the danger of tolerating exotic 
religions ; and even under the reign of Tiberius — that 
enemy of gods and men — the Egyptian ceremonies were 
prohibited. A Roman jurist declares it to be a principle of 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 315 

their law, that those who introduced religions of new and 
doubtful tendency, if men of rank, were to be degraded ; 
if plebeians, were to be punished with death ! But of all 
the forms of faith known to the world, Christianity, for 
the reasons already mentioned, was most obnoxious to the 
jealousy of government. It could not be a religio licita 
of the Roman law. Its professors were liable to the 
charge of high reason. They were stigmatized as irre- 
ligiosi — hostes Cccsarum, Jwstes popuii Romani. 

Could any one unacquainted with the true nature of 
Christianity have foreseen the ominous clouds which were 
to gather around her, and the tempests of fire and blood 
which were to burst upon her, during the long night of 
her affliction, he would have deemed it impossible for her 
even to maintain an existence upon earth — he would 
have predicted her speedy and utter annihilation. 

In a country blest with a constitutional government 
and religious liberty — where none dare lay trammels on 
freedom of opinion, and where the expression, ''persecu- 
tion for conscience' sake," is scarcely understood, inas- 
much as none have any experience of its meaning — it is 
difficult to form an adequate conception of the trials of 
those whose lives were liable at any moment to be ter- 
minated by bloody martyrdom — who, in professing the 
name of Christ, provoked the wrath of principalities and 
powers — who had to pass by the stake on their way to 
the communion table. When the world respects the rites 
and institutions of religion, it is an easy matter to assume 
the name of Christian. But the profession of Christianity 
is a very different thing, when the official is seen disen- 
tangling the thongs of the knotted lash — when the heads- 
man runs his nail over the keen edge of the gleaming axe ; 
when the torturer stirs the fagots under the red bars of 
the iron griddle; when the executioner jags the nails and 



316 SERMONS. 

clanks the spikes which are to mangle while they transfix 
the hands and feet to the cross; when the hungry lion 
howls round the amphitheatre, and famished dogs stand 
ready to gnaw the skulls which roll from the dripping 
scaffold — ah ! then it is a different matter to espouse the 
cause which exposes its professor to terrors like these. 
But for the testimony of faithful history, we would not 
believe that satanic malice could invent tortures, or that 
hellish cruelty could have been so unfeeling as to inflict 
torments, such as Christians of every age and sex were 
then compelled to suffer. It was not the terror of death 
— but the death of terror which then affrighted the soul. 
And if, according to the testimony of Lactantius, there 
were instances in which magistrates boasted that during 
their whole administration they had put no Christians to 
death, let Lactantius explain the secret of their boast, and 
inform us what credit is to be given to those who uttered 
it. He can teach us that there are punishments worse 
than death — that the most savage executioners are those 
who have resolved not to kill — that the most dreadful 
of all sufferings are those which are disguised under the 
name of clemency. "They give orders," says he, "that 
strict care be taken of the tortured, that their limbs may 
be repaired for other racks, and their blood recruited 
afresh for other punishments !" Knowing that death 
would be a release to the sufferer, and that it would con- 
fer on him the glorious crown of martyrdom, and admit 
him to the reward of the blessed, "they inflict," he adds, 
"the most exquisite pains on the body, and are only solici- 
tous lest the tortured victim should expire!" So great 
was the variety of the tortures invented for them, that 
Domitius Ulpianus, a celebrated lawyer, wrote seven 
books descriptive of the different punishments that Chris- 
tians ought to have inflicted on them. But if occasional 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 317 

instances occurred in which humane and justice-loving 
magistrates, yielding to the natural sentiments of pity, 
were willing, with Trajan, to advise that Christians 
should not be sought for, and that only such as were ap- 
prehended should be capitally punished — yet there were 
no such restraints upon the blind fury of the populace, 
whose appetite for blood was only whetted by each fresh 
view of the gory scaffold and the crimson sands of the 
arena. 

But why should we dwell upon details which sicken 
the heart and harrow the feelings? It is sufficient to ob- 
serve that thousands upon thousands were the victims of 
those persecutions, and that the whole power of the 
Roman Empire, which had been sufficient to subdue the 
world, was exhausted in the effort to subdue the church. 
And here a new phenomenon engages our attention. 
These persecutions, so far from extinguishing the Chris- 
tian name and cause, served only to give to both new 
honors and triumphs. If power smiled upon the church, 
it grew ; if power frowned upon the church, it grew still 
faster, and amidst indescribable terrors advanced with a 
heroism which could "smile at the drawn dagger and 
defy its point." Amid the dark glooms of persecution, 
there blazed forth the burning and shining lights of the 
world. The heroism of the soldier who fights in the pres- 
ence of thousands, whose victory is celebrated by a 
nation's acclamations, or whose fall is hallowed by a 
nation's tears, is nothing to the heroism which supported 
the primitive martyrs through long months and weary 
years of imprisonment, and which inspired them with a 
holy serenity when they stood upon the scaffold, sur- 
rounded, not by admiring and applauding thousands, but 
by the hootings and execrations of the infuriated rabble. 

Do you wish for the most illustrious examples of un- 



318 SERMONS. 

shaken fortitude which the world has known? Then 
search not for them on the bloody deck or on the em- 
battled field — but go to the deserts to which the saints 
have been exiled, to the dungeons in which they have 
been immured, to the funeral piles from which they have 
ascended in chariots of fire, and there behold displays of 
true valor, infinitely transcending the bravery of those 
who seek the bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth, 
or who rush on death amid the clangor of trumpets and 
the thunder of artillery ! 

The resignation of the martyr was no sullen stoicism 
yielding to inevitable necessity. It was not the savage 
pride of the Indian at the stake, who dies, and makes 
no sign of inward agony. It was cheerful acquiescence 
in the will of Providence. It was the deep and beautiful 
tranquillity of those who believed that to die in the arms 
of Jesus was to live forever. 

Like the trees which yield their precious gums only 
when their sides are gashed ; like the palm which lifts 
its head highest - when the greatest weight is laid upon it; 
like the burning forest, which kindles with fiercer flame 
just as the tempest beats upon it — so Christianity, under 
the sword, under the heel, under the storm of persecution, 
only the more mightily prevailed and grew. The good 
seed of the gospel had been sown over the field of the 
world, and upon that seed the blood of martyrs fell like 
fertilizing showers, while over it the flame of persecution 
was but a torrid sun, quickening it into luxuriant develop- 
ment, and clothing it with a brighter verdure. 

It is not Paul at liberty, but Paul in chains, who bears 
testimony before kings, and as a captive makes converts 
in Caesar's household. 

The enemies of Wycliffe, years after his death, ordered 
that his remains should be disinterred and scattered. The 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 319 

more effectually to effect this purpose, his ashes were cast 
into one of the branches of the river Avon, and thus, 
says old Fuller, "this brook did convey his ashes into the 
Avon, and the Avon into the Severn, and the Severn into 
the narrow sea, and this into the wide ocean, and so the 
ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which 
is now dispersed all the world over." So, too, in primitive 
times, the whirlwind of persecution scattered the good 
seed wherever there was a soil on which it could fall ; 
and not only did it germinate in rich luxuriance on the 
banks of fertile rivers, and on the shores of sunny islands, 
but far away in the distant desert there was the bloom 
and fragrance of the rose. 

No arguments were so convincing as the patient suf- 
ferings of Christians, no miracles so overpowering as 
their prayers, invoking blessings on the heads of their 
tormentors. 

Do mail-clad soldiers, inured to the atrocities of war, 
behold a young and beautiful female, possessed of all 
those charms which poets delight to celebrate and sculp- 
tors to perpetuate, accused of no crime, but that of loving 
Jesus of Nazareth — do these men of iron mould, behold 
her driven through the streets of Rome, stripped of her 
modest veil, scourged as she goes, and scarred with hot 
irons, until she sinks in the arms of death, with murmurs 
of pity and forgiveness upon her lips and triumph in her 
eyes ? — then these, before unmoved and prayerless men, 
kneel down in the streets, and declare that, if such are 
the victories of the Christian faith, they, too, are the dis- 
ciples of Jesus henceforth and forever ; and there, beside 
the body of the murdered girl, they swear allegiance to 
the cause for which she suffered martyrdom. 

Does a little boy, charged only with loving him who 
took little children to his arms and to his heart, clasp his 



320 SERMONS. 

hands together as he is fastened to the stake, and sing 
his infant hymn as the flames kindle around him, and 
pray to Jesus not to desert him in the fire ? — there, too, 
is a spectacle which makes iron-hearted veterans weep, 
which causes them to call upon the executioners to pre- 
pare the pile for them also, for, say they, if a child can 
die thus exulting and go rejoicing to the skies in a whirl- 
wind of fire, his faith must have come from the skies ; 
let ours be such a death, and our last end like his. 

Such was the result. The sword of persecution 
glancing off from the shield of Christianity, inflicted mor- 
tal wounds upon the body of him who drew it, and at 
last fell broken from the palsied arm which had wielded it. 

Such was the triumph of Christianity over its mighti- 
est foe. The Roman power, before which the nations 
had bowed in subjection, cannot overcome the fishermen 
of Galilee, but is conquered by them. Historians have 
made the success of Alexander in subduing the Persian 
Empire with an army of thirty thousand the theme of their 
glowing eulogies ; but what was this to the achievements 
of one little band of apostles? 

Christianity, without arms, without allies, without 
wealth, without influence, without worldly allurements, 
goes forth from its lowly shed in Bethlehem, seizes upon 
Jerusalem, overcomes Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Alex- 
andria, Rome; overturns idol, altar and temple; sweeps 
away the religious formations of centuries ; prostrates all 
enemies in the dust ; places its foot upon the neck of per- 
secution ; ascends the imperial throne, and gives laws to 
the subjugated nations. Here is a mystery demanding a 
solution. Here is an effect, a stupendous effect, produced 
without any visible agency or discovered natural cause 
at all adequate to such a result. Here is a consummation 
attained in defiance of all the ordinary laws which control 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 321 

the changes of society, in opposition to all the principles 
which govern the developments of human affairs. Be- 
hold the Christian Church — a symmetrical edifice ; not 
a heap of building materials, but a structure, well ce- 
mented, admirably proportioned, and garnished after the 
similitude of a palace, exhibiting in all its parts evidences 
of deep design, and matchless skill, and resistless power ! 
Whose hands reared these walls, yet strengthening, yet 
rising, waiting only for the capstone, and the accompany- 
ing shoutings of a multitude which no man can number ? 
Who is the designer and builder of this temple? 

The Christian delights to answer, "I trace in every 
polished stone, in every pillar and battlement of this 
august edifice, the handiwork of a divine Architect. " 

If the infidel refuses to unite in this ascription, and 
denies the agency of the supernatural in the progress of 
the gospel and the establishment of the church, then let 
him inform us how he solves the mystery of the triumph 
of Christianity without the intervention of a God. 

The attempt has been made. The marvellous con- 
quests of the gospel in the primitive ages have been as- 
scribed to natural causes, and to agencies purely human. 
All the ingenuity of unbelief has been exhausted in the 
effort to show that instrumentalities, such as man can 
devise and put in action, were quite adequate to the result. 
Without formally enumerating these agencies, or demon- 
strating their insufficiency to themselves to bring about 
the mightiest revolution ever wrought in the history of 
the world, it is sufficient to remark, that some of these 
alleged causes of the rapid propagation of Christianity 
were effects of a higher cause — even the highest. The 
swift and wide diffusion of the gospel has been ascribed 
to the dauntless courage, the purity of life, the inextin- 
guishable zeal, of its early champions. But what rendered 
21 



322 SERMONS. 

these once timid, ignorant and wicked men the fearless 
advocates of a faith which exposed them to persecution 
and to death ? What qualified them to become the authors 
of the purest and sublimest system of ethics the world 
ever saw? What kindled the zeal so rational, so well 
founded, so tempered with charity, so attended by a regard 
for all the proprieties of life, and yet so mighty to the 
overthrow of all error and of all opposition? There is 
only one rational explanation of the transformation which 
took place in these men, and that is the theological one, 
that it was produced by a divine influence, causing a 
thorough, radical and universal change in their principles, 
affections and lives. 

But while Christianity claims a divine origin, and pro- 
fesses to owe its extension to a divine power, it does not 
weaken the force of these claims to admit that it was 
greatly aided in its propagation by "secondary causes/' 
and by agencies purely human. These were not, indeed, 
the primary cause of its triumphs, but it only illustrates 
the wisdom of divine Providence when we can show how 
he constrains all human instrumentalities to subserve his 
plans in the government of the world and the establish- 
ment of his church. No believer in the great Author of 
revelation doubts either that he adapted his gospel to the 
world, or that he prepared the world for its reception, 
compelling even "secondary causes" to accomplish the 
adorable purposes of his grace ; but it is hard to compre- 
hend how any candid man, with all the facts before him, 
can honestly believe that the church of God was founded 
and has been preserved in the world by agencies simply 
human ; or how can he find in secondary or natural causes 
a satisfactory solution of that mystery of a church with- 
out worldly influence, wealth, learning, rank or power, 
represented by men ignoble and despised, declaring, as it 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 323 

did, open war upon all the vanities, vices, selfish interests, 
cherished propensities and deep-rooted superstitions of the 
world, yet triumphing over prejudice, argument, elo- 
quence, philosophy, established religion, the sword of per- 
secution, and finally clothing itself with the glory and the 
honor, the dominion and the power ! 

But make a single admission. Ascribe these victories 
to the superintendence and to the imparted aid of the 
Omniscient and Omnipotent, and then all wonder ceases, 
all mystery vanishes. Indeed, willing or unwilling, we 
are forced to this conclusion. There are no principles or 
causes of production and change in the worlds of spirit 
and of matter which are not either natural or super- 
natural ; but having seen that the former is insufficient 
to explain the phenomenon before us, we are forced back 
upon the supernatural. Says Hume, "When we infer any 
particular cause from an effect, we must proportion the 
one to the other." Here, then, is the great incontrovertible 
fact of a religion triumphant over a thousand obstacles, 
any one of which would seem sufficient to arrest its pro- 
gress. To refer such an effect to a human cause, and, 
above all, to such feeble and inadequate causes as infidelity 
with its best ingenuity has been able to assign, is certainly 
a shocking violation of the principle of the great skeptic. 
The disproportion is monstrous. A church resting upon 
its spire would be a novelty in architecture, but it would 
have as stable a foundation as that which infidelity gives 
to Christianity. Regarding the Christian church as an 
edifice whose maker and builder was God, we delight 
to contemplate the lofty spire springing from the temple, 
and pointing to heaven, to remind us of the Almighty 
Architect. The divine influence to which the Christian 
ascribes the success of Christianity is sufficient to account 
for every anomaly, and adequate to the production of 



324 SERMONS. 

every effect. Sustained and developed by omnipotent 
power, we can see how Christianity, at first appearing as 
a twinkling star, surrounded by clouds and thickest 
glooms, should nevertheless increase in magnitude and 
splendor, and cleaving the surrounding veil of darkness, 
shine forth as the meridian sun. Urged on by the hand 
that moves the worlds, we can understand how the great- 
est results were accomplished by the feeblest instru- 
mentalities ; we see that the selection of humble fishermen 
as the heralds of salvation, instead of men of rank, and 
genius, and eloquence, was because "God hath chosen the 
foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and 
God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound 
the things which are mighty; and base things of the 
world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, 
yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things 
that are ; that no flesh should glory in his presence," and 
that the power might be seen to be of God. Plain men, 
convinced by the miracles which they saw Christ perform 
of the truth of his doctrine, and able to convince others 
of the same truths by the miracles which they wrought, 
with love to God and love to men throbbing in every pul- 
sation of their hearts, and sending the thrill of a diviner 
life through every limb, impelling them to all-daring, 
never-flagging action — men thus inflamed and thus 
nerved went forth into the field of the world, and sowed 
the good seed which has never perished, and from which 
thousands in all generations have reaped the harvest of 
life everlasting. 

The primary cause of the success of Christianity was 
the operation of the Divine Spirit on the minds and hearts 
of men, giving to them spiritual perception — subduing 
their opposition to the truth, and endowing them with the 
expulsive and impulsive power of a new affection, "Tarry 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 325 

ye," said our Saviour to his disciples, "in the city of 
Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." 
This was doubtless a trying command to men in their 
situation, certain of the resurrection of their Lord, assured 
that his kingdom would one day fill the earth with its 
glory, and knowing that the salvation of the race de- 
pended upon its reception of the gospel offer. With such 
tidings to communicate, with such a glorious King to 
proclaim, they must have longed to advance, at once, to 
the prosecution of their work ; but the time had not yet 
come. A new and peculiar influence must descend from 
heaven and rest upon them ere they could be qualified 
for the undertaking. As the statue of Memnon, on the 
shores of the sea, stood tuneless and mute, until the rays 
of the morning sun gilded its brow, so these heralds of 
the gospel had neither gifts nor tongues for their sublime 
proclamation until the light and fire from heaven should 
descend upon their heads, illuminating and kindling them, 
and causing them in turn to illuminate and kindle others. 
But baptized by this heaven-descended influence, though 
ignorant, they became wise ; though weak, they became 
resistless ; though timid, they became animated with a 
courage which nothing in life or death could daunt. By 
this supernatural agency they were endowed not only 
with the gift of tongues, but with the power of working 
miracles. And now their most extraordinary successes 
are no longer inexplicable. What though they are ob- 
scure, unlettered men, standing perchance in the presence 
of rank and power, what is to prevent them from elevating 
the humble cross, and challenging the admiration and love 
of beholders for a crucified Saviour, while they bear in 
their hands the credentials of heaven, and by signs and 
mighty wonders are able to display to the senses and 
inmost convictions of men the evidences of an omnipotent 



326 SERMONS. 

and omnipresent God, bearing miraculous testimony to 
the truth and importance of their doctrine? What is 
there longer unaccountable in the success of Christianity, 
the moment that the son of the lowly virgin is demon- 
strated to be the Son of God, and when his poor, unlet- 
tered, timid followers are seen to be girded with strength 
from on high? What is to prevent the triumph of doc- 
trines which exhibit the impress of the same Almighty 
hand which has left its autograph on every leaf of the 
book of nature? Should all other miracles be blotted 
from record, this miracle of the swift and universal spread 
of Christianity would remain a monument of its celestial 
lineage, immovable as the everlasting hills. 

And to the same power which gave to Christianity its 
first victories must we ascribe its preservation in the world 
during so many centuries, and its present existence, power 
and progress. There was a period — we need not now 
trace the path which led to it — when all that was pure 
and spiritual and divine in Christianity seemed to have 
been swallowed up and buried under a mass of dead 
forms and living corruptions ; when superstition and 
ignorance brooded over the earth as darkness did upon 
the face of the deep when the earth was without form, 
and void. But Christianity, though disastrously eclipsed, 
had not been utterly extinguished. Deep beneath the 
smouldering ashes a brand from the altar lay buried. It 
was glowing unseen, like the internal fires which are 
smothered in the deep abysses of the volcano, presently 
to burst forth and shoot up their flames to the empyrean. 
Through all the dark ages the religious element was work- 
ing, and though misdirected, as in the case of the Cru- 
sades, it was not annihilated. The Word of God, though 
bound, was not utterly silent, and even when its whisper 
was heard, the still small voice was glorified. There were 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 327 

not wanting, even in the bosom of the apostate church, 
witnesses for the truth as it is in Jesus. Claudius of 
Turin, in the ninth century, and Peter of Bruys, Arnold 
of Brescia, in the twelfth century ; Pierre Valdo, WyclifTe, 
Jerome of Prague, Anselm of Canterbury, and Savona- 
rola, in later times, all testified against the abuses which 
had corrupted the church ; and, above all, the Vaudois 
formed a long-continued chain of witnesses for the truth, 
holding up the cardinal doctrines of the gospel, even as 
the Alpine mountains which they inhabited lifted up their 
summits above the plains to be bathed in the pure sun- 
light of heaven. The Waldenses, nestling in the valleys 
of Piedmont, holding fast to their integrity, served God 
in ancient purity of worship, and never bowed the knee 
to Baal ; and even when the sword of the persecuting 
foe smote among them they were not destroyed, but, when 
scattered, went forth into all parts of Europe, sowing 
the good seed of the Word of life. It was the noble 
heroism of this band which inspired that immortal sonnet 
of Milton, so truly descriptive of their wrongs and of the 
fruit of their sufferings: 

" Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones 

Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold; 

Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, 
When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones, 
Forget not : in thy book record their groans, 

Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 

Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll'd 
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 

To heav'n. Their martyr' d blood and ashes sow 
O'er all th' Italian fields, where still doth sway 

The triple Tyrant ; that from these may grow 
A hundred-fold, who having learn'd thy way 

Early may fly the Babylonian woe." 



328 SERMONS. 

When at last the light of the Reformation blazed 
forth, it was evidently kindled by the same spirit which 
came down in tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost. It 
was not by might, nor by human power, that the Refor- 
mation was accomplished. 

Various temporal princes resisted Rome, but one after 
another (to use the fine metaphors of D'Aubigne) they 
broke in pieces at the base of the mighty Colossus they 
undertook to overthrow. Learning, too, awoke and came 
to the rescue ; but learning became subsidized, and kissed 
the feet of the power it attempted to dethrone. At last 
the apostate church undertook to correct its own abuses, 
but corruption could not purify corruption, nor could the 
festering wound originate its own cure. But finally the 
regenerative power which erected the church of the first 
century on the ruins of polytheism, built up its demolished 
walls on the ruins of Babylon. The divine oracles, so 
long imprisoned, again spoke forth, and the Word was 
life and light. Pure Christianity revived. Old things 
passed away and all things became new. 

Since the glorious era of the Reformation, Chris- 
tianity has illustrated her indestructibility by coming forth 
unscathed from the assaults of other foes. Even under 
its noon-tide radiance, and in the enjoyment of the richest 
blessings which the gospel has communicated to the 
world, there has arisen an order of men whose hearts are 
filled with rancorous hatred to its doctrines, and who have 
exerted all their powers in the attempt to dislodge its 
truths from the memories and affections of their fellows. 
Casting aside the old weapons of force, the assault has 
been not upon the bodies, but upon the minds of men. 
"In this campaign infidelity has marshalled all its hosts, 
it has sent forth its ponderous tomes of grave scholastic 
argument, it has come forth arrayed in the imposing garb 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 329 

of philosophy. It has assumed to itself all the panoply of 
science. It has mingled its dogmas with the voice of 
history. It has infused its poison into the fountains of 
literature. It has blended its notes with the sweet ca- 
dences of poetry. It has chanted its blasphemies in soft- 
est strains of music. It has crept into every house in the 
garb of fiction. It has shot forth the polished arrows of 
satire, and decked itself with the charms of wit and senti- 
ment. It has borrowed the livery of heaven, and trans- 
formed itself into an angel of light. It has pretended to 
be the only true friend and ally of freedom. It has spread 
its lures for the feet of the aged, and stolen with velvet 
tread into the chambers of youth and innocence. Since 
the era of the Reformation, it has joined hands, as did 
polytheism of old, with persecuting power. It has again 
drawn the sword, and kindled the fagot, and quarried the 
prison, and set in order its implements of cruelty. It has 
thundered its denunciations against the heralds of the 
gospel, and armed its myrmidons against the followers of 
the meek and lowly Lamb. It has abolished the temples 
of the Most High, attempted to raze the foundations of 
the church, and to overwhelm in a tempest of fire and 
blood all who professed to be followers of the crucified 
Redeemer. And still the church survives, God being her 
refuge and strength, and very present help in time of 
trouble. 

There is another and very different illustration of the 
"success" of Christianity, to which we would fain advert, 
viz., to its instrumentality in relieving human wants and 
woes, its amelioration of the wrongs and evils of society, 
the solace it brings to the wounded spirit, and its happy 
influence on the temporal prospects of men. Wherever it 
has gone it has rebuked oppression, repressed violence, 
and compelled vice, abashed, to skulk in darkness. Chris- 



330 SERMONS. 

tianity is now the mightiest power at work among the 
nations — nay, nations are civilized just in proportion as 
they are Christian. Modern civilization is the offspring 
of Christianity. The institutions which most conserve, 
which most elevate and purify society, owe to it their 
origin. It is the foundation of all just law; it is the 
patron of every fine art. It is the genius of whatever is 
most healthful in literature. From it the poet derives his 
divinest inspiration, the painter his grandest and tenderest 
scenes. The sweet charities of domestic life, the most 
hallowed ties which unite human hearts on earth, refine- 
ment of manners, courtesy of intercourse, cultivation of 
taste, all these are among its incidental benefits, while its 
grand aim is to purify the heart and elevate the affections, 
and so transform the entire man as to qualify him for the 
felicities and glories of the heavenly world. While in- 
fidelity is like the molten lava which, spouting up from 
the fiery depths of the volcano, overwhelming vineyards 
and human habitations in its destructive sweep, then set- 
tles down upon the blackened ruins, hardening itself to 
stone — Christianity descends like the gentle dews of 
heaven, steals through the silent valleys, diffusing fer- 
tility and fragrance as it goes, causing the dry land to be- 
come springs of water and the desert to blossom as the 
rose, while before it sighing and sorrow flee away, and in 
its train come thanksgiving and the voice of melody. 

The author of that admirable little work entitled The 
Bible True, remarks that "there are two effects produced 
by the Word of God on the hearts of those who embrace 
it, which are peculiar to revelation. One is elevated 
purity. This effect is not confined to the virtuous part of 
mankind, but is witnessed also in the desperate, and out- 
rageous, and lawless, who are brought under its power. 
Men fierce as wild beasts, as cruel as death, and ungov- 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 331 

ernable as the storm, have often felt its purifying power. 
This has been the case from the first. An early Christian 
writer says, 'Give me a man of a passionate, abusive, 
headstrong disposition ; with a few only of the words of 
God, I will make him gentle as a lamb. Give me a greedy, 
avaricious, tenacious wretch, and I will teach him to dis- 
tribute his riches with an unsparing hand. Give me a 
cruel and blood-thirsty monster, and all his rage shall be 
exchanged to true benignity. Give me a man addicted to 
injustice, full of ignorance, and immersed in wickedness, 
he shall soon become just, prudent and innocent.' v 

Such was the testimony of one who witnessed the 
power of Christianity in the primitive age. Let us con- 
tent ourselves with a single illustration of its influence in 
more modern times, as exhibited in the following simple 
narrative, extracted from an annual report of the Bible 
Society, and worthy of perpetual remembrance: 

"In 1787, the ship Bounty sailed from England to the 
Pacific in quest of young bread-fruit trees, to be replanted 
in the West Indies. On her way home the crew mutinied, 
placed the master and eighteen others in a frail open boat, 
with scanty provisions, and committed them to the mercy 
of the ocean. Strange to tell, that boat accomplished a 
voyage of more than 4,000 miles, and reached England in 
safety. The mutineers, twenty-five in number, set sail 
for some island in the Pacific. They quarrelled and 
separated. About half of the whole number were cap- 
tured by an English vessel-of-war, carried home and 
hung in irons. Nine of these desperadoes went to Tahiti, 
took on board nineteen natives, seven men and twelve 
women, and sailed for some uninhabited island in the 
ocean. They found one, Pitcairn's Island. Shortly after 
landing, the Tahitian men murdered five of the mutineers, 
upon which the twelve women rose at night and killed 



332 SERMONS. 

their seven countrymen. Of the four remaining muti- 
neers, one invented a distillery, and becoming delirious 
leaped from a cliff into the sea and was lost. Another 
was shot for attempting to destroy his messmates. Of 
the two then left, one died a natural death, and the other, 
named John Adams, alone survived. Here their hiding- 
place was undisturbed until 1814, when it was visited, as 
also in 1825. Strange alterations had taken place. The 
number of inhabitants had increased to seventy. There 
was no debauchery amongst them. Good order prevailed. 
Filial affection and brotherly love pervaded the entire 
society. The blessing of God was invoked on every meal. 
Prayer was offered every morning, noon, and evening. 
The laws of civilized society were in force. The rights 
of property were respected. A simple and pure morality 
was prevalent. How was this? What had made the 
change? Had vice wrought its own cure? Had there 
been some good principles combined with the mutiny and 
murder, the heathenism and devilish passions, which this 
gang had been guilty of? No. These evils never work 
their own cure, except by consuming, like a fire, their 
own materials. The cause of the change was this. Adams 
had saved, hid, and preserved a Bible, and when his 
comrades were dead, he studied it, embraced its promises, 
believed God's testimony concerning his Son, was con- 
verted, read and taught its truths to his family and neigh- 
bors, and God blessed his Word to their conversion also. 
That very Bible is now in this country. It is a small 
volume, printed in 1765. The salt sea and the salt tears 
of old Adams have taken away its gloss and dimmed its 
print; but it contains God's testimony of Jesus. That 
was the secret of its power. The worm has eaten it 
through and through. But the glad tidings to sinners 
can still be read in it. That Bible has travelled round the 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 333 

globe, has been the means of reforming a whole commu- 
nity of outlaws, and still lives to proclaim its divine Origi- 
nal and its life-giving power. When Adams was brought 
to his death-bed he was old in years, but strong in faith. 
The friends of the old salt collected around him and 
asked, 'Well, John, what cheer?' 'Land ahead!' was his 
characteristic reply. After a few days they again gath- 
ered around him and said, 'Well, John, how now?' He 
replied, 'Rounding the point into the harbor.' At last he 
lay upon his dying pillow, and his relations were standing 
all around in tears, and yet in hope. One said, 'Brother, 
how now?' 'Let go the anchor,' was his dying exclama- 
tion, and he fell asleep." 

Having now taken this general, but extended view of 
the rise, progress and effects of Christianity, we may be 
permitted, in conclusion, to cast a single glance toward 
the future. 

We have seen enough to convince us that our holy 
religion is indestructible in its nature, possessing within 
itself no elements of decay, but the principle of immor- 
tality. The shield of God is spread over it, and the bosses 
of that buckler are eternal truth and power. There let 
infidelity hurl its darts until, with nerveless, withered, 
wasted arm, it abandons the contest, with the confession 
that such assaults are more idle than casting straws 
against the impenetrable scales of leviathan. Its past his- 
tory gives the bright presage of its future victories. 
Amidst all the revolutions of ages, amidst all the desola- 
tions of time, amidst all the changing, vanishing creeds 
and institutions of the world, Christianity still survives; 
and rises to the view as beautiful and glorious as on the 
day when, arrayed in its primal loveliness, it came down 
from heaven to redeem and regenerate the earth. "Se- 
rapis fell with Thebes, Baal with Babylon, Apollo with 



334 SERMONS. 

Delphi, and Jupiter with the Capitol, but Christianity has 
often beheld the demolition of her sacred temples without 
being convulsed by their fall." It derives its vitality from 
him who only hath immortality, and its shrine is not 
material walls, but the living heart of the good man. 
When its temples have been overthrown, and its disciples 
compelled to flee the haunts of civilized life, its hymns 
have charmed the solitude of the desert, its prayers have 
hallowed the damp walls of the dungeon, its sacraments 
have been celebrated in the dens of the earth, its most 
illustrious triumphs have been witnessed upon scaffolds, 
its brightest glories have blazed forth from the funeral 
piles of its martyrs. Other creeds have been like the 
clouds, for a time piled up in dizzy heights and bathed in 
the golden beams of the sun, while Christianity, like the 
sun itself, shines undimmed and unwasted, with none 
of its original glory obscured. Every day its expansive 
power becomes increasingly manifest. Its missionaries 
now traverse all lands, dare all climates, and tempt all 
seas. 

With each returning Sabbath the praises of its exalted 
Author are murmured from ten thousand tongues; the 
strain is caught up from church to church, and from land 
to land, until the music goes echoing round the world. 

And can we for a moment believe, that a religion so 
benign, so adapted in its provisions to the necessities and 
woes of the world, teaching sweet lessons of resignation 
under present sorrow, inspiring such joyous anticipations 
of future blessedness, can ever perish ? No ; these celes- 
tial hopes, whose untiring wings waft the soul above all 
that is terrestrial, these sublime aspirations, whose angel 
fingers point to the illimitable sky, and cheer the spirit 
with the foretaste of a destiny full of glory, honor, im- 
mortality, eternal life; oh! no; these can never perish — 



THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 335 

they are heaven-born and indestructible. They can never 
be supplanted by a sullen, cheerless infidelity, which sub- 
mits, because it must, to inexoiable fate — which has no 
prospects, but a cold, bleak world around, and a rayless 
eternity beyond — whose best discovery is, a grave with- 
out a resurrection, and a ivorld without a God. 



OCT 12 1904 



V 1 



